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HOME  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
OF  MODERN  KNOWLEDGE 

No.  60 


Editors: 

HERBERT  FISHER,  M.A.,  F.B.A. 

Prof.  GILBERT  MURRAY,  Litt.D., 
LL.D.,  F.B.A. 

Prof.  J.  ARTHUR  THOMSON,  M.A. 
Prof.  WILLIAM  T.  BREWSTER,  M.A. 


THE  HOME  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
OE  MODERN  KNOWLEDGE 

i6mo  cloth,  50  cents  net,  by  mail  56  cents 
PHILOSOPHY  AND  RELIGION 
Just  Published 

PROBLEMS  OF  PHILOSOPHY  .  By  Bertrand  Russell 

BUDDHISM . By  Mrs.  Rhys  Davids 

ENGLISH  SECTS . By  W.  B.  Selbie 

THE  MAKING  OF  THE  NEW 

TESTAMENT . By  B.  W.  Bacon 

ETHICS . By  G.  E.  Moore 

MISSIONS  .  . . By  Mrs.  Creighton 


Future  Issues 

THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  ....  By  George  Moore 
BETWEEN  THE  OLD  AND  NEW 

TESTAMENTS . By  R.  H.  Charles 

COMPARATIVE  RELIGION  .  .  By  J.  Estlin  Carpenter 
A  HISTORY  OF  FREEDOM  OF 


THOUGHT 


By  J.  B.  Bury 


COMPARATIVE 

RELIGION 


BY 

J.  ESTLIN  CARPENTER 

D.LITT. 

PRINCIPAL  OF  MANCHESTER  COLLEGE,  OXFORD 


NEW  YORK 

HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 

LONDON 

WILLIAMS  AND  NORGATE 


A't  0 


3  I  9  a  2  I  «>  £•  £« 


CONTENTS 


CHAP. 

I 

INTRODUCTORY  .... 

• 

PAGE 

7 

II 

THE  PANORAMA  OF  RELIGIONS  . 

0 

37 

III 

RELIGION  IN  THE  LOWER  CULTURE  . 

• 

72 

IV 

SPIRITS  AND  GODS  .... 

• 

101 

V 

SACRED  ACTS  . 

• 

133 

VI 

SACRED  PRODUCTS  .... 

0 

170 

VII 

RELIGION  AND  MORALITY 

• 

195 

VIII 

PROBLEMS  OF  LIFE  AND  DESTINY 

• 

226 

BIBLIOGRAPHY  .... 

• 

251 

INDEX  .  %  • 

• 

253 

V 


244573 


“  Those  first  affections. 

Those  shadowy  recollections. 

Which,  be  they  what  they  may. 

Are  yet  the  fountain  light  of  all  our  day. 

Are  yet  a  master  light  of  all  our  seeing  ; 

Uphold  us,  cherish,  and  have  power  to  make 
Our  noisy  years  seem  moments  in  the  being 
Of  the  eternal  Silence.” 

Wordsworth. 


“  To  the  philosopher  the  existence  of  God 
may  seem  to  rest  on  a  syllogism  ;  in  the  eyes 
of  the  historian  it  rests  on  the  whole  evolu¬ 
tion  of  human  thought.” — Max  Muller. 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCT  ORY 

Over  the  chancel-arch  of  the  church  at 
South  Leigh,  a  few  miles  west  of  Oxford,  is 
a  fresco  of  the  Last  Judgment  and  the 
Resurrection,  of  the  type  well  known  in 
mediaeval  art.  On  the  adjoining  south  wall 
stands  the  stately  figure  of  the  archangel 
Michael.  In  his  right  hand  he  holds  a  pair 
of  scales.  In  one  scale  is  the  figure  of  a  soul 
in  the  attitude  of  prayer;  beside  it  is  Our 
Lady  carrying  a  rosary.  The  other  contains 
an  ox-headed  demon  blowing  a  horn.  This 
scale  rises  steadily,  though  another  demon 
has  climbed  to  the  beam  above  to  weigh  it 
down,  and  a  third  from  hell’s  mouth  below 
endeavours  to  drag  it  towards  the  abyss.  The 
same  theme  recurs  in  several  other  English 
churches ;  and  it  is  carved  over  the  portals 
of  many  French  cathedrals,  as  at  Notre  Dame 
in  Paris. 

Unroll  a  papyrus  from  an  Egyptian  tomb 
of  the  Eighteenth  Dynasty  before  the  days 
of  Moses,  and  you  will  see  a  somewhat  similar 

7 


8 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


scene.  The  just  and  merciful  judge  Osiris, 
“  lord  of  life  and  king  of  eternity,”  sits  in  the 
Hall  of  the  two  goddesses  of  Truth.  Hither 
the  soul  is  brought  for  the  ordeal  which  will 
determine  his  future  bliss  or  woe.  Before 
forty-two  assessors  he  declares  his  innocence 
of  various  offences  :  “  I  am  not  a  doer,  of  what 
is  wrong ;  I  am  not  a  robber ;  I  am  not  a  slayer 
of  men ;  I  am  not  a  niggard ;  I  am  not  a  teller 
of  lies ;  I  am  not  a  monopoliser  of  food ;  I  am 
no  extortioner ;  I  am  not  unchaste ;  I  am  not 
the  causer  of  others’  tears.  ...”  Then  he  is 
led,  sometimes  supported  by  the  two  goddesses 
of  Truth,  to  the  actual  trial.  Resting  on  an 
upright  post  is  the  beam  of  a  balance.  It  is 
guarded  by  a  dog-headed  ape,  symbol  of 
Thoth,  “  lord  of  the  scales.”  Thoth  has 
various  functions  in  the  ancient  texts,  and 
even  rises  into  a  kind  of  impersonation  of  the 
principle  of  intelligence  in  the  whole  universe. 
Here  as  the  computer  of  time  and  the  inventor 
of  numbers  he  plays  the  part  of  secretary  to 
Osiris.  In  one  scale  is  placed  the  heart  of  the 
deceased,  the  organ  of  conscience.  In  the 
other  is  sometimes  a  square  weight,  sometimes 
an  ostrich  plume,  symbol  of  truth  or  righteous¬ 
ness.  Thoth  stands  beside  the  scales,  tablet 
in  hand,  to  record  the  issue  as  the  soul  passes 
to  the  great  award. 

The  scenes  and  the  persons  differ;  but  the 
fundamental  conception  of  judgment  is  the 
same,  and  it  is  carried  out  by  the  same  method. 
Is  this  an  accidental  coincidence  of  metaphor  ? 


INTRODUCTORY 


9 


The  figure  of  the  balance  was  naturally 
suggestive  for  the  estimate  of  worth,  and 
the  Psalmist  cried  in  bitterness  of  heart — 

64  Surely  men  of  low  degree  are  vanity, 

And  men  of  high  degree  are  a  lie, 

In  the  balances  they  will  go  up ; 

They  are  altogether  lighter  than  vanity.” 

The  mysterious  hand  wrote  upon  the  wall 
of  Belshazzar’s  palace  the  strange  word  Tekel, 
which  contained  the  dreadful  sentence, 44  Thou 
art  weighed  in  the  balances  and  art  found 
wanting.”  To  early  Indian  imagination, 
before  the  days  of  the  Buddha  (500  B.c.),  the 
ordeal  of  the  balance  was  part  of  the  outlook 
into  the  world  beyond.  In  the  ancient  Persian 
teaching,  Rashnu,  the  angel  of  justice,  before 
the  shining  44  Friend,”  the  mediator  Mithra, 
presided  over  the  weighing  of  the  spirits  at 
the  bridge  of  destiny,  over  which  they  would 
pass  to  heaven  or  hell. 

Is  Michael  the  heir  of  Thoth  or  Rashnu  ? 
He  passed  into  the  Christian  Church  from  the 
Jewish  Synagogue,  where  he  was  specially 
connected  with  the  destinies  of  the  dead. 
He  guided  the  souls  of  the  just  to  the  heavenly 
world,  where  he  led  them  into  the  mystic  city, 
the  counterpart  of  Jerusalem  below;  or  he 
stood  at  the  gate  as  the  angel  of  righteousness 
to  decide  who  should  be  admitted.  So  for 
the  Greeks  Hermes  was  the  guardian  of  the 
spirits  of  the  departed,  whom  he  conducted 


10 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


to  the  judgment  in  the  under-world.  In  this 
respect,  then,  Hermes  and  Michael  were  akin. 
But  Hermes  also  played  many  other  parts, 
and  the  Greeks  identified  him  with  the  Egyp¬ 
tian  Thoth.  When  the  destinies  of  Hector 
and  Achilles  were  weighed  against  each  other, 
ere  the  last  mortal  combat,  the  vase -painter 
could  represent  Hermes  as  holding  the 
balance  in  the  presence  of  Zeus,  much  as 
Thoth  had  presided  over  it  before  Osiris , 
The  Etruscan  artists  depicted  Mercury,  the 
Italian  equivalent  of  Hermes,  fulfilling  the 
same  function.  True,  the  purport  of  the  test 
was  different.  But  the  symbol  was  the  same ; 
and  when  Hermes  gave  place  to  Michael,  as 
Christianity  was  carried  to  the  West,  the  scales 
passed  from  the  Hellenic  to  the  Jewish  Chris¬ 
tian  figure,  though  they  had  in  the  one  case 
been  used  to  decide  the  allotment  of  fate,  and 
in  the  other  were  employed  for  judgment. 
Why  they  remained  so  long  unused  in  Christian 
symbolism  is  obscure.  The  revival  of  inter¬ 
course  with  the  East  through  the  Crusades 
may  have  given  new  force  to  the  idea  as  part 
of  the  great  judgment -process ;  and  the  figure 
to  which  it  was  most  natural  to  assign  it 
was  that  of  Thoth-Hermes-Michael. 

The  religion  of  the  ancient  Hindus  was 
founded,  as  every  one  knows,  upon  the 
venerable  hymns  collected  into  one  sacred 
book  under  the  name  of  the  Rig  Veda.  These 
hymns,  1017  in  number,  containing  over 


INTRODUCTORY 


11 


10,000  verses,  are  now  arranged  in  ten  books, 
twice  the  number  of  the  divisions  of  the 
Hebrew  Psalter.  Like  most  of  the  Psalms 
they  are  traditionally  ascribed  to  different 
poets,  in  whose  families  they  were  sung ;  and 
their  authors  were  regarded  as  Rishis,  bards, 
or  sages.  Of  their  real  origin  nothing  is 
definitely  known;  their  composition  probably 
extends  over  many  generations,  perhaps  over 
several  centuries  ;  and  dim  suggestions  of  their 
super-earthly  origin  already  appear  in  some 
of  the  latest  poems.  They  became  the  peculiar 
treasure  of  the  priestly  order ;  the  most 
laborious  efforts  were  devised  for  the  study 
and  preservation  of  the  sacred  text ;  the 
methods  of  pronunciation,  the  rules  of  gram¬ 
mar,  the  principles  of  metre,  the  derivations 
of  words,  were  all  elaborated  with  the  utmost 
minuteness  into  different  branches  of  Vedic 
lore.  Two  other  smaller  Vedas,  collections 
of  sacrificial  formulae  and  hymns,  were  very 
early  placed  beside  the  main  work,  and  a 
fourth  collection  gained  similar  rank  much 
later.  With  the  development  of  the  great 
schools  of  Hindu  philosophy,  especially  after 
the  decline  of  Buddhism,  the  whole  question 
of  authority  as  the  foundation  of  belief  and 
reasoning  was  forced  to  the  front,  and  this 
in  due  time  was  applied  to  the  Veda.  Brah- 
manical  speculation  had  been  long  concerned 
with  its  divine  origin.  It  sprang  from  one  of 
the  mysterious  figures  in  which  the  ancient 
theologians  expressed  their  sense  of  the  real 


12 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


unity  of  the  heavenly  powers,  Prajapati,  the 
44  lord  of  creatures,”  through  the  medium  of 
Vach,  or  sacred  Speech.  As  such  it  was  46  the 
firstborn  in  the  universe.”  But  as  proceeding 
from  Prajapati  it  issued  from  the  world  of 
the  an-anta ,  the  44  un-ending  ”  or  44  infinite,” 
which  was  likewise  the  sphere  of  the  a-mrita, 
the  44  im-mortal  ”  or  44  deathless.”  So  it 
belonged  to  the  realm  of  the  eternal,  where  it 
could  be  beheld,  not  indeed  with  the  eye  of 
sense,  but  with  the  higher  discernment  of  the 
holy!  Seer.  The  philosophical  schools  occupied 
themselves  accordingly  with  the  defence  of  the 
eternity  and  consequent  infallibility  of  the 
Veda.  Elaborate  arguments  were  devised  to 
explain  the  relation  of  words  to  things,  and 
of  sound  in  the  abstract  to  uttered  speech  or 
again  to  show  how  behind  individuals  which 
had  their  origin  in  time  there  existed  species 
(even  of  the  gods)  which  belonged  to  the  time¬ 
less  order  transcending  our  experience.  So 
the  conclusion  was  reached,  in  the  words  of 
the  great  philosopher  Cankara  (a.d.  788-820), 
that  44  the  authority  of  the  Veda  with  regard 
to  the  matters  stated  by  it  is  independent  and 
direct;  just  as  the  light  of  the  sun  is  the 
direct  means  of  our  knowledge  of  form  and 
colour.” 

Just  at  this  era,  by  a  singular  coincidence, 
a  remarkable  controversy  was  raging  in  the 
schools  of  Mohammedan  theology.  Moham¬ 
med  died  in  a.d.  632.  He  had  himself  recorded 
nothing ;  the  traditions  about  him  are  not  even 


INTRODUCTORY 


13 


agreed  whether  he  could  read  or  write.  His 
oracles  were  taught  to  his  disciples,  who  began 
to  note  down  some  of  them  during  the  prophet’s 
life ;  soon  after  his  death  the  formal  collection 
of  them  was  undertaken;  and  under  Caliph 
Othman  (651)  four  copies  were  deposited  in 
the  cities  of  Mecca,  Cufa,  Basra,  and  Damascus. 
We  know  the  work  under  the  name  of  the 
Koran  ( Quran  =  reading),  one  of  the  numer¬ 
ous  expressions  which  Mohammed  was  said 
to  have  coined  for  the  revelation  imparted 
to  him  from  on  high.  Later  generations 
attached  the  title  exclusively  to  the  utterances 
fixed  in  literary  form,  and  discerned  in  them 
a  unity  designed  by  the  prophet ;  but  it  seems 
more  consonant  with  his  view  to  regard  each 
of  the  114  discourses  (suras)  as  a  unit  in  itself, 
and  the  whole  as  only  a  fragment  of  his 
teaching.  Many  passages  raise  a  claim  to 
specific  divine  origin;  others  allude  to  the 
uncreated  Scripture,  umm-al-kitab ,  “  the 

mother  of  the  book.” 

On  such  hints  was  founded  the  remarkable 
doctrine  that  the  Koran  was  eternal  in  its 
essence  as  the  word  of  God,  a  necessary 
attribute  of  the  Most  High.  First  formulated 
in  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century  (a.d.  747- 
748),  it  roused  extraordinary  interest  outside 
the  theological  schools.  It  was  fostered  by 
the  early  Caliphs,  for  it  supported  their 
political  authority,  and  the  emphasis  which  it 
placed  on  the  doctrine  of  predestination  sup¬ 
plied  them  with  a  potent  weapon.  Opposition 


14 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


arose  on  the  ground  of  free  will ;  the  passages 
enforcing  the  principle  of  predestination  were 
evaded  by  the  handy  method  of  allegorical 
interpretation,  and  the  revolt  of  the  moral 
consciousness  led,  as  it  has  done  elsewhere, 
to  rationalism.  Public  debates  were  held 
amid  general  excitement,  when  the  Caliph 
Ma’mun  (813-833)  unexpectedly  espoused  the 
rationalist  cause,  and  issued  a  decree  forbidding 
the  discussion.  The  popular  forces,  however, 
were  in  the  long  run  triumphant.  In  847  a 
new  Caliph  came  into  power,  inclined  for 
political  reasons  to  the  higher  doctrine. 
Lectures  were  instituted  in  the  mosques  on 
the  attributes  of  God,  and  vast  audiences — 
the  historians  report  twenty  and  even  thirty 
thousand  hearers — listened  eagerly  while  the 
theologians  disputed  whether  God’s  word 
could  be  conceived  distinct  from  his  absolute 
being.  Faith  in  the  prophet  triumphed;  the 
exaltation  of  the  product  reacted  on  that  of 
the  person;  and  the  Arabian  shepherd  could 
be  regarded  as  the  inerrant,  sinless,  uncreated 
light,  sent  forth  from  Deity  himself,  who  for 
his  sake  spread  out  the  earth  and  arched  the 
heavens,  and  proclaimed  the  great  confession 
“  There  is  no  God  but  Allah,  and  Mohammed 
is  his  prophet.” 

Every  great  historical  religion  passes  through 
numerous  phases,  as  it  is  brought  into  contact 
with*  different  cultures,  and  evokes  various 
forms  of  speculative  thought  and  inward 


INTRODUCTORY 


15 


experience.  Buddhism  has  been  no  exception 
to  this  rule.  It/  sprang  up  in  a  moral  revolt 
against  the  claims  of  the  Brahmanical  teachers, 
and  in  the  midst  of  the  discussions  of  the 
sophists  turned  its  back  on  metaphysics  and 
sought  to  concentrate  attention  on  the  Noble 
Path  of  the  good  life.  It  offered  a  way  of 
deliverance  from  the  weary  round  of  births 
and  deaths  by  the  victory  over  ignorance  and 
sin,  and  sought  to  overcome  selfishness  by 
eliminating  the  idea  that  man  has,  or  is,  a 
Self.  Accordingly  it  presented  its  founder 
Gotama  (500  b.c.),  as  the  man  who  had 
attained  the  Truth,  who  had  by  a  long  series 
of  lives  devoted  to  the  higher  righteousness 
acquired  the  insight  into  the  causes  and  mean¬ 
ing  of  existence,  and  imparted  it  to  his 
followers  with  instructions  to  carry  it  forth  for 
the  welfare  of  their  fellow-men.  For  this  end 
he  founded  a  union  or  order;  he  instituted  a 
discipline,  and  committed  his  teaching  to  a 
body  of  disciples  whose  successors  gradually 
bore  it  into  distant  lands.  He  himself  passed 
away,  leaving  no  trace  behind.  His  memory 
was  cherished  with  dutiful  devotion.  Pil¬ 
grimages  to  the  scenes  of  his  birth  and  Buddha - 
hood,  commemorative  festivals  and  pious 
rites,  kept  the  image  of  the  Teacher  before  the 
mind  of  the  believer.  But  no  prayer  was 
offered  to  him;  no  worship  created  any  bond 
of  fellowship  between  the  departed  Gotama 
and  the  community  which  he  had  left  on 
earth. 


16 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


But  in  the  course  of  several  generations 
remarkable  changes  took  place.  Environed 
by  philosophical  speculations,  Buddhism  could 
not  remain  wholly  unaffected  by  the  great 
ideas  of  metaphysics.  While  one  branch,  now 
surviving  in  Ceylon,  Burma  and  Siam,  remained 
faithful  to  the  Founder’s  exclusion  of  all  such 
conceptions  as  being,  substance,  and  the  like, 
others  began  to  interpret  the  person  of  the 
Buddha  in  terms  of  the  Absolute,  and  identi¬ 
fied  him  with  the  Eternal  and  the  Self-Exis¬ 
tent,  who  from  time  to  time  for  the  welfare 
of  the  world  took  on  himself  the  semblance 
of  humanity,  and  appeared  to  be  born,  to 
attain  Enlightenment,  and  die.  The  great 
aim  of  the  deliverance  of  all  sentient  beings 
from  error,  suffering,  and  guilt,  expressed  itself 
further  in  the  association  with  him  of  numerous 
other  holy  forms  sharing  the  same  purpose  of 
the  world’s  salvation.  . 

Among  these  was  the -Buddha  Amitabha, 
the  Buddha  of  Boundless  Light,1  who  had 
made,  a  wondrous  vow  in  virtue  of  which  a 
blessed  future  of  righteousness  and  joy  in  the 
Western  Paradise  was  secured  for  all  who  put 
their  trust  in  him.  Carried  into  China,  this 
devotion  acquired  great  popularity,  and  cen¬ 
turies  later  it  passed  into  Japan.  There,  while 
Europe  was  sending  its  warriors  to  win  back 
from  the  Crescent  the  city  of  the  Cross,  while 
Bernard  and  Francis  and  Dominic  were 
awakening  new  enthusiasm  for  the  monastic 
1  Also  called  Amitayus,  the  Buddha  of  Boundless  Life. 


INTRODUCTORY 


17 


life,  two  famous  teachers,  Honen  (1133-1212) 
and  Shin-ran  (1173-1262),  developed  the  doc¬ 
trine  of  “  salvation  by  faith.”  Honen  was 
the  only  son  of  a  military  chief  who  died  of 
a  wround  inflicted  by  an  enemy.  On  his  death¬ 
bed  he  enjoined  the  boy  never  to  seek  revenge, 
and  bade  him  become  a  monk  for  the  spiritual 
enlightenment  both  of  his  father  and  his 
father’s  foe.  So  the  lad  passed  in  due  time 
into  one  of  the  great  Buddhist  monasteries  on 
mount  Hiei.  Long  years  of  laborious  study 
followed,  till  in  1175  he  reached  the  conviction 
that  faith  in  Amida1  was  the  true  way  of 
salvation.  A  deep  sense  of  human  sinfulness 
and  the  belief  in  an  All -Merciful  Deliverer  were 
the  essential  elements  of  his  religion.  Three 
emperors  became  his  pupils,  and  his  life, 
compiled  by  imperial  order  after  his  death, 
resembles  that  of  a  mediaeval  Christian  saint. 
Visions  of  Amida  and  of  the  holy  teachers  of 
the  past  were  vouchsafed  to  him.  He  preached 
— like  another  St.  Francis — to  the  serpents 
and  the  birds.  His  person  was  mysteriously 
transfigured,  and  a  wondrous  light  filled  his 
dwelling. 

His  disciple  Shin-ran  carried  the  doctrine 
of  his  master  yet  a  little  farther.  Filled  with 
adoring  gratitude  to  the  Buddha  of  Boundless 
Light,  who,  as  the  deliverer,  was  also  the 
Buddha  of  Boundless  Life,  he  argued  that 
infinite  mercy  and  infinite  wisdom  must  belong 
to  him;  and  these  in  their  turn  implied  the 

1  The  Japanese  form  of  the  Sanskrit  Amitabha. 

B 


18  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


power  to  give  effect  to  his  great  purpose.  He 
passed  from  village  to  village  through  the 
Eastern  provinces,  rousing  enthusiasm  by  the 
hymns  into  which  he  wrought  his  new  faith. 
They  are  still  sung  in  the  temples  at  the 
present  day.  But  whereas  Honen  had  recog¬ 
nised  a  value  in  good  works,  and  had  enjoined 
the  duty  of  constant  repetition  of  the  sacred 
name  of  Amida,  Shin-ran  insisted  that  all 
element  of  4 4  self -exertion  ”  must  be  purged 
away,  and  faith  in  the  merits  of  Amida — “  the 
exertion  of  another  ” — should  alone  remain. 
Some  of  the  conceptions  of  Western  teaching 
thus  present  themselves  in  Japan  in  the  midst 
of  modes  of  life  and  thought  of  purely  Indian 
origin.  Christian  theologians  had  debated 
whether  faith  was  to  be  regarded  as  an  opus 
or  a  donum ,  a  44  work  ”  or  a  44  gift,”  was  it 
something  to  be  attained  by  man  or  was  it 
bestowed  by  God  ?  The  Japanese  answer 
was  unhesitating.  Faith  was  not  earned  by 
effort,  or  achieved  by  merit,  it  was  granted 
out  of  immeasurable  love.  44  The  Buddha,” 
we  read,  44  confers  this  heart.  The  heart 
which  takes  refuge  in  his  heart  is  not  produced 
by  oneself.  It  is  produced  by  the  command 
of  Buddha.  Hence  it  is  called  the  believing 
heart  by  the  Power  of  Another.”  The  natural, 
corollary  was  that  in  due  course  this  grace 
would  be  bestowed  on  all.  The  Buddha  of 
Boundless  Light  and  Life  would  overcome  the 
darkness  of  ignorance  and  death;  and  this 
type  of  Buddhism,  now  the  most  active  and 


INTRODUCTORY 


19 


influential  in  Japan,  preaches  the  doctrine  of 
universal  salvation.  The  student  finds  here 
a  whole  series  of  parallels  to  the  Evangelical 
interpretation  of  Christianity.  Both  schemes 
are  founded  on  the  same  essential  ideas,  man’s 
need  of  a  deliverer,  and  the  attainment  of 
salvation  by  no  human  conduct  but  by  faith 
in  a  divine  person. 

The  foregoing  sketches  raise  many  problems. 
What  are  the  actual  features  in  different 
religions  which  are  susceptible  of  comparison  ? 
How  can  we  distinguish  between  resemblances 
which  are  deep-seated  and  spring  from  the 
fundamental  principles  of  two  given  faiths, 
and  those  which  are  only  on  the  surface,  and 
probably  accidental  ?  How  far  can  such 
parallels  be  ascribed  to  suggestion  through 
historical  contact,  and,  if  they  lie  too  far 
apart  for  possibilities  of  any  form  of  mutual 
dependence,  out  of  what  common  types  of 
experience  are  they  derived,  what  forces  of 
thought  have  shaped  them,  what  feelings  do 
they  express  ? 

The  student  of  Comparative  Religion  seeks 
answers  to  these  and  similar  questions.  A 
vast  field  of  inquiry  is  at  once  opened  before 
him.  It  embraces  practically  every  continent, 
people,  and  tribe  on  the  face  of  the  globe. 
It  begins  in  the  last  period  of  the  great  ice 
age,  when  men  lived  in  this  country  in  the 
company  of  the  elephant,  the  rhinoceros,  and 
the  mammoth,  and  hunted  their  game  through 


20 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


Germany,  Belgium,  and  France.  In  dim 
recesses  of  the  caves  they  painted  the  deer, 
the  bison,  the  antelope  and  the  wild  boar, 
under  conditions  which  imply  some  kind  of 
mysterious  or  holy  place.  They  buried  their 
dead  with  care,  and  though  we  can  ask  them 
no  questions  we  may  infer  with  much  prob¬ 
ability  that  they  celebrated  some  kind  of  funeral 
meal,  and  deposited  implements  and  ornaments 
in  the  grave  for  the  use  of  the  departed  in  the 
world  beyond.  In  one  case  hundreds  of  shells 
were  found  buried  with  the  skull  of  a  little 
child.  Similar  usages  may  be  traced  through 
the  slow  advances  of  culture  to  the  present 
day.  Death  is  an  element  of  universal  experi¬ 
ence  ;  and  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  suppose  that 
if  the  negroid  peoples  of  Western  Europe  had 
worked  out  some  view  of  its  meaning  and 
consequences,  there  were  other  things  to  be 
done  or  avoided  out  of  fear  or  reverence  for 
the  Unseen. 

The  first  objects  of  comparison  are  thus 
found  in  the  outward  acts  which  fall  more  or 
less  clearly  within  the  sphere  of  religion,  the 
places  where  these  are  performed,  the  persons 
who  do  them,  the  means  required  for  them, 
the  occasions  to  which  they  are  attached. 
These  all  belong  to  the  external  world;  they 
can  be  observed  and  recorded,  even  though 
we  may  not  be  sure  what  they  mean.  When 
they  are  brought  together,  a  series  of  grada¬ 
tions  of  complexity  can  be  established,  while 
a  common  purpose  may  be  traced  through  all. 


INTRODUCTORY 


21 


From  the  negro  who  lays  his  offering  of  grain 
or  fruit  at  the  foot  of  a  tree  with  the  simple 
utterance,  46  Thank  you,  gods,”  to  a  great 
Eucharistic  celebration  at  St.  Peter’s,  a 
continuous  line  of  ritual  may  be  followed,  in 
which  the  action  becomes  more  elaborate,  the 
functions  and  character  of  the  officiating 
ministers  more  strictly  defined,  the  accessories 
of  worship  more  complicated.  This  corre¬ 
sponds  to  the  enrichment  and  elevation  of  the 
ideas  and  emotions  that  animate  the  act,  as 
that  which  is  at  first  performed  as  part  of 
tribal  usage  and  ancestral  custom  acquires 
the  force  of  divine  institution  and  personal 
duty. 

Behind  the  external  act  lies  the  internal 
world  of  thought  and  feeling.  The  social 
sanction  may  invest  the  ceremony  itself  with 
so  much  force  that  the  worshipper’s  interest 
may  lie  rather  in  the  due  performance  of  the 
rite  than  in  the  deity  to  whom  it  is  addressed. 
The  element  of  belief  may  be  relatively  vague 
and  indefinite.  But  in  the  more  highly  organ¬ 
ised  religions  belief  also  may  externalise  itself 
through  hymn  and  prayer,  through  myth  and 
history  and  prophecy.  When  a  religion  is 
strong  enough  to  create  a  literature,  a  fresh 
object  of  comparison  is  presented.  The  utter¬ 
ances  of  poet  and  sage,  of  lawgiver  and  seer, 
can  be  set  side  by  side.  Their  conceptions  of 
the  Powers  towards  which  worship  is  directed 
can  be  studied;  the  characters  and  functions 
of  the  several  deities  can  be  determined.  This 


22 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


is  the  intellectual  element  in  religion.  It  has 
often  been  regarded  as  the  element  of  most 
importance,  because  it  seemed  most  readily 
to  admit  of  the  test  of  truth.  It  finds  its 
most  formal  expression  in  the  articles  of  a 
creed,  and  has  sometimes  been  erected  into 
the  chief  ground  of  the  supreme  arbitrament 
of  heaven  and  hell. 

There  remains  the  element  of  feeling.  This 
also  may  be  so  entangled  in  tradition,  so 
enveloped  in  the  pressure  of  surrounding 
influences,  that  it  is  at  first  obscure  and  indis¬ 
tinct.  But  its  importance  was  early  recognised 
when  the  origin  of  religion  was  ascribed  to  fear, 
in  the  oft-quoted  line  of  the  Roman  Satirist 
Petronius  Arbiter  at  the  court  of  Nero  (who 
committed  suicide  a.d.  66) — 

66  Primus  in  orbe  deos  fecit  timor.” 

In  the  eighteenth  century  the  genius  of 
Lessing  (1729-1781)  fastened  on  the  feeling  of 
the  heart  as  the  essential  foundation  of  religion. 
No  written  record,  no  historical  event,  could 
guarantee  its  truth ;  that  lay  in  the  constitu¬ 
tion  of  the  human  spirit  in  its  interpretation 
of  its  experience.  In  his  famous  drama  of 
44  Nathan  the  Sage  ”  he  applied  this  to  the 
representatives  of  three  great  historical  re¬ 
ligions  which  were  thus  brought  together  for 
comparison :  the  Christian  Templar,  the  Mo¬ 
hammedan  Saladin,  and  the  Jew  Nathan. 
Herder  (1744-1803)  endeavoured  with  the 


INTRODUCTORY 


23 


materials  then  at  command  to  trace  the  origin 
and  development  of  religion,  starting  from 
the  primitive  impressions  made  upon  the 
mind  by  the  world  without,  and  sought  to 
interpret  mythology  as  the  imaginative  utter¬ 
ance  of  man’s  consciousness  of  the  power, 
light,  and  life  in  Nature.  In  the  next  genera¬ 
tion  Schleiermacher  (1767-1834)  placed  the 
essence  of  religion  in  the  feeling  of  absolute 
dependence,  without  attempting  to  define  the 
object  towards  which  it  was  directed.  The 
study  of  origins  has  passed  out  of  the  hands 
of  the  philosophers  and  the  theologians.  But 
it  cannot  dispense  with  psychology ;  and 
among  the  factors  of  early  religious  life  will 
be  found  the  beginnings  of  wonder,  reverence 
and  awe.  And  this  element,  often  cruelly 
twisted  into  false  and  degraded  forms,  and 
sometimes  refined  in  the  higher  types  of 
mysticism  into  the  loftiest  spirituality,  inheres 
in  all  practice  and  belief. 

What,  then,  is  the  basis  of  comparison 
among  different  faiths  ?  The  student  who 
is  engaged  in  tracing  the  life -history  of  any 
one  religion  will  naturally  start  from  the  field 
of  investigation  thus  selected.  As  he  widens 
his  outlook  he  will  find  that  a  number  of 
illustrative  instances  force  themselves  upon 
his  view.  The  people  whose  institutions  and 
ideas  he  is  examining  are  members  of  a  given 
ethnic  group.  The  ancient  Hebrews,  for 
instance,  belong  on  the  one  side  to  the  life  of 
the  desert,  and  are  kin  with  the  nomad  Arabs, 


24 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


on  the  other  they  are  related  to  the  authors 
of  Babylonian  culture.  Or  in  the  course  of 
events  a  new  religion  is  brought  by  missionary 
impulse  into  a  less-developed  civilisation,  as 
when  Buddhism  passed  from  China  through 
Corea  into  Japan,  and  was  planted  in  the 
midst  of  a  cruder  faith.  Widely  different 
modes  of  thought  are  thus  brought  into  close 
juxtaposition,  their  relation  and  interaction 
can  be  examined,  and  the  inner  forces  of  each 
compared. 

That  such  inquiries  must  be  con¬ 
ducted  without  prejudice  need  not  now 
be  enforced.  An  eighteenth-century  writer 
might  lay  it  down  that  44  the  first  general 
division  of  Religion  is  into  True  and  False” 
and  might  draw  the  conclusion  that  44  the 
chapter  of  False  Religions  is  by  much  the 
longest  in  the  History  of  the  religious  opinions 
and  practices  of  mankind.”1  Dr.  Johnson 
could  sententiously  declare  that  “  there  are 
two  objects  of  curiosity,  the  Christian  world 
and  the  Mohammedan  world — all  the  rest 
may  be  considered  as  barbarous.”  A  learned 
Oxford  scholar  of  the  last  generation  could 
speak  of  the  44  three  chief  false  religions,” 
Brahmanism,  Buddhism,  and  Mohammedan¬ 
ism.  Missionaries  and  travellers  of  an  elder 
day,  who  took  some  form  of  Christianity  as 
their  foundation,  sometimes  found  the  savages 
among  whom  they  laboured  destitute  of 
religion  because  they  had  no  Father  in  heaven 
1  Broughton,  Dictionary  of  all  Religions ,  1745. 


INTRODUCTORY 


25 


and  no  everlasting  hell.  These  attitudes,  it 
is  now  freely  recognised,  are  not  scientific. 
For  purposes  of  comparison  no  single  religion 
can  be  selected  as  a  standard  for  the  whole 
human  race.  Particular  products  may  be  set 
side  by  side.  The  asceticism  of  India  may 
be  compared  with  that  of  early  Christianity. 
The  ritual  of  sacrifice  may  be  studied  in  the 
book  of  Leviticus  or  the  Hindu  Brahmanas. 
What  are  sometimes  called  44  Ethnic  Trinities  ” 
may  be  examined  in  the  light  of  Alexandrian 
theology.  The  suras  of  the  Koran  may  be 
read  after  the  prophecies  of  Isaiah.  The 
various  phases  of  the  Buddhist  Order,  with 
its  missionary  zeal,  its  power  of  adaptability 
to  different  cultures,  its  readiness  to  accept 
new  teaching,  may  be  contrasted  with  the 
wonderful  cohesiveness  and  expansion  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church.  The  ideas  of  the 
Hellenic  mystery-religions  may  be  found  to 
throw  light  on  the  language  of  St.  Paul.  Out 
of  the  multitudinous  phases  of  human  experi¬ 
ence  all  the  world  over  innumerable  resem¬ 
blances  will  be  discovered.  Each  is  a  fact 
for  the  student,  and  must  be  treated  on  equal 
terms  in  the  field  of  science.  But  they  will 
have  more  or  less  intrinsic  significance  in  the 
scale  of  values.  Philosophy  may  attempt  to 
range  them  in  gradations  of  worth,  in  nobility 
of  form,  in  dignity  of  expression,  in  moral 
purity,  in  social  effectiveness.  Beneath 
infinite  diversity  the  mystic  will  affirm  the 
unity  of  the  whole,  with  the  poet  of  the 


26  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 

Masnavi,  Jalalu-’d-Din  of  Balkli  (a.d.  1207- 
1273)— 

64  Because  He  that  is  praised  is,  in  fact,  only 
One, 

In  this  respect  all  religions  are  only  one 
religion.” 

The  materials  of  comparison  are,  of  course, 
of  the  most  varied  kind.  The  interest  of  the 
ancient  Greeks  was  early  roused  in  the  diverse 
practices  which  they  saw  around  them,  and 
the  observations  of  Herodotus  concerning  the 
Egyptians,  the  Persians,  the  Scythians,  and 
many  another  tribe  upon  the  fringe  of  bar¬ 
barism,  have  earned  for  him  the  modern  title 
of  the  44  Father  of  Anthropology.”  Travellers, 
missionaries,  government  officers,  men  of 
trade  and  men  of  learning,  have  recorded  the 
usages  of  the  lower  culture  all  over  the  world, 
naturally  with  varying  accuracy  and  penetra¬ 
tion,  and  a  vast  range  of  facts  has  been 
registered  through  successive  stages  of  com¬ 
plexity  in  social  and  religious  development. 
Many  of  these  have  their  parallel  in  the  folk¬ 
lore  of  countries  where  the  uniformity  of 
modern  civilisation  has  not  crushed  out  all 
traditional  beliefs,  while  annual  customs  or 
even  village  games  may  contain  survivals  of 
what  were  once  important  ceremonial  rites. 
The  irruption  of  the  Arab  conquerors  into 
Europe  brought  Christianity  face  to  face  with 
Mohammedanism  and  its  sacred  book.  In  the 


INTRODUCTORY 


27 


seventeenth  century  the  Jesuit  Fathers  in 
China  first  made  known  the  teachings  of  Kong- 
fu-tse  (“  Philosopher  Kong  ”)  500  B.c.  whose 
name  they  Latinised  into  Confucius.  Towards 
the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  a  brilliant 
little  band  of  English  scholars  in  Calcutta 
began  to  reveal  the  astounding  copiousness 
of  the  sacred  literature  of  India.  During  the 
expedition  of  Napoleon  to  Egypt  in  1799  the 
Rosetta  Stone  (now  in  the  British  Museum) 
yielded  the  clue  to  the  hieroglyphics  which  cover 
the  walls  of  temple  and  tomb.  A  genera¬ 
tion  later  a  young  British  officer,  Lieutenant 
Henry  Rawlinson,  began  in  1835  to  copy  a 
triple  inscription  .on  a  cliff  of  Mount  Behistun, 
near  Kermanshah  in  Persia.  The  work  was 
dangerous  and  difficult,  but  he  was  enabled 
to  complete  it  ten  years  later.  It  contained 
an  identical  record  in  three  languages,  Persian, 
Median,  and  Babylonio -Assyrian,  and  provided 
the  means  for  deciphering  the  cuneiform  script 
of  the  tablets  and  cylinders  soon  recovered 
from  the  mounds  of  Mesopotamia. 

Meanwhile  the  lovers  of  the  past  were  at 
work  in  many  other  directions.  The  Swedish 
Lonrott  collected  the  ancient  songs  of  the 
Finnic  people,  under  the  name  of  the  Kalevala. 
Other  scholars  brought  to  light  the  treasures 
of  Scandinavian  mythology  in  the  Icelandic 
Edda  with  its  two  collections  of  poetry  and 
prose.  In  Wales  and  Ireland  the  texts  which 
enshrined  the  Celtic  faith  awoke  new  interest. 
The  students  of  classical  antiquity  began  to 


28 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


collect  inscriptions,  and  it  was  soon  realised 
that  the  spade  might  be  no  less  useful  in 
Greece  or  Asia  Minor  than  beside  the  Nile  or 
the  Euphrates. 

The  last  century  has  thus  accumulated  an 
immense  mass  of  material  in  literature  and 
art.  There  are  codes  of  law  regulating  in  the 
name  of  deity  the  practice  of  family  and  social 
life.  There  are  hymns  of  praise  or  of  peni¬ 
tence,  sometimes  in  strange  association  with 
the  spells  of  magic.  There  are  books  of  ritual 
and  sacrifice,  of  ceremonial  order,  of  philo¬ 
sophical  speculation  and  moral  precept.  There 
are  rules  of  discipline  for  religious  communi¬ 
ties  ;  and  there  are  pictures  of  judgment  and 
delineations  of  the  heavenly  life.  Sculpture 
and  painting  have  been  employed  to  give 
external  form  to  the  objects  of  pious  reverence ; 
and  the  architecture  of  the  sanctuary  has 
■wrought  into  stone  the  fundamental  concep¬ 
tions  of  majesty,  proportion,  and  grace. 

All  this,  it  is  plain,  rests  upon  history. 
When  Confucius  visited  the  seat  of  the 
imperial  dynasty  at  the  court  of  Chow,  he 
studied  with  deep  interest  the  arrangements 
for  the  great  sacrifices  to  Heaven  and  Earth ; 
he  surveyed  the  ancestral  temples  in  which 
the  emperor  offered  his  worship ;  he  inspected 
the  Hall  of  Light  whose  walls  bore  paintings 
of  the  sovereigns  from  the  remotest  times ; 
and  then  he  turned  to  his  disciples  with  the 
remark  :  44  As  we  use  a  glass  to  examine  the 
forms  of  things,  so  must  we  study  the  past  to 


INTRODUCTORY 


29 


understand  the  present.”  Comparison  that 
confines  itself  solely  to  counting  up  resem¬ 
blances  here  and  there  will  be  of  small  value. 
We  cannot  comprehend  the  real  meaning  of 
a  single  religious  rite,  a  single  sentence  of  any 
scripture,  apart  from  the  context  to  which  it 
belongs.  Acts  and  words  alike  issue  out  of 
experiences  that  may  be  hundreds  of  years 
old,  and  sum  up  generations,  it  may  be  whole 
ages,  of  a  continuous  process.  To  trace  the 
successive  forms  of  these  changes,  to  describe 
the  steps  through  which  they  have  passed,  is 
like  making  a  chart  of  a  voyage,  and  laying 
down  the  lines  of  continent  and  ocean,  island 
and  cape.  Or  just  as  the  races  of  man  are 
sorted,  and  their  characteristics  are  enum¬ 
erated  without  reference  to  the  various  causes 
which  have  produced  their  modifications,  so 
geography  and  ethnography  might  companion 
hierography ,  the  delineation  of  44  the  Sacred  ” 
in  its  concrete  manifestations. 

But  behind  the  external  evolution  of  a  given 
religion,  its  modes  of  worship,  its  ministers, 
its  doctrines,  lie  more  complicated  questions. 
What  causes  shaped  these  acts  and  moulded 
these  beliefs  ?  What  elements  of  race  are  to 
be  discerned  in  them  ?  How  can  we  account 
for  the  diversities  between  the  religions  of 
peoples  belonging  to  a  common  stock,  like 
those  of  India  and  those  of  ancient  Italy  ? 
What  have  been  the  effects  of  climate,  of  the 
struggle  with  alien  peoples  and  new  environ¬ 
ment  ?  How  does  the  food-supply  influence 


30 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


the  formation  of  religious  ideas  ?  What 
contacts  have  been  felt  with  other  races,  and 
what  positive  loans  or  more  impalpable  influ¬ 
ences  have  passed  from  one  side  to  the  other  ? 
We,  find  here  in  hierology ,  the  science  of  44  the 
Sacred,”  an  analogue  to  the  reasoning  which 
accounts  for  the  distribution  of  land  and 
water,  the  rise  of  mountain  ranges  and  the 
sculpture  of  valleys  and  river-beds  out  of  the 
stratification  of  the  earth’s  crust,  and  builds 
up  a  science  of  geology;  or  which  traces  the 
results  of  migration  upon  peoples,  the  conse¬ 
quences  of  inter-marriage  with  other  tribes, 
the  disastrous  issues  of  war,  surveys  the 
immense  variety  of  causes  which  have  con¬ 
tributed  to  new  developments  of  racial  energy, 
and  arranges  this  knowledge  in  the  science  of 
ethnology. 

And,  lastly,  the  values  of  these  facts  must 
be  estimated.  How  far  can  they  be  accepted 
as  expressing  the  reality  of  the  Unseen  Power, 
and  man’s  relation  to  it  ?  Hierology  may 
explain  how  men  have  developed  certain 
practices  or  framed  certain  beliefs ;  to  deter¬ 
mine  their  reasonableness  is  the  task  of  the 
philosophy  of  religion  or  hierosophy.1 

The  study  of  44  Comparative  Religion  ” 
assumes  that  religion  is  already  in  existence. 
It  deals  with  actual  usages,  which  it  places 
side  by  side  to  see  what  light  they  can  throw 
upon  each  other.  It  leaves  the  task  of  formu- 

1  These  three  terms  have  been  suggested  by  Count 
Goblet  d’Alviella,  of  Brussels. 


INTRODUCTORY 


31 


lating  definitions  to  philosophy.  It  is  not 
concerned  with  origins,  and  does  not  project 
itself  into  the  prehistoric  past  where  conjecture 
takes  the  place  of  evidence.  An  old  miracle - 
play  directed  Adam  to  pass  across  the  stage 
“  going  to  be  created.”  Whether  religion  first 
appeared  in  the  cultus  of  the  dead,  or  only 
entered  the  field  after  the  collapse  of  a  reign 
of  magic  which  had  ceased  to  satisfy  man’s 
demands  for  help,  or  was  born  of  dread  and 
desired  to  keep  its  gods  at  a  distance,  only 
remotely  affects  the  process  of  discovering  and 
examining  the  resemblances  of  its  forms,  and 
interpreting  the  forces  without  and  within 
which  have  produced  them.  The  sphere  of 
speculation  has  its  own  attractions,  but  in  this 
little  book  an  attempt  will  be  made  to  keep  to 
facts. 

Three  hundred  years  ago  Edward  Herbert,1 
an  Oxford  scholar  who  played  many  parts  and 
played  them  well,  in  deep  revolt  against  the 
ecclesiastical  doctrine  that  all  the  world  outside 
the  pale  of  the  Church  was  doomed  to  eternal 
damnation,  devoted  himself  to  the  study  of 
comparative  religion.  With  the  materials 
which  the  classics  afforded  him,  he  examined 
the  recorded  facts  among  the  Greeks  and 
Romans,  the  Carthaginians  and  Arabs,  the 
Phrygians,  the  Persians,  the  Assyrians.  The 
whole  fabric  of  human  experience  was  built 
up,  he  argued,  on  certain  common  knowledges 
or  notions,  which  could  be  distinguished  by 
1  1583-1648,  elder  brother  of (( Holy  George  Herbert.” 


32 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


specific  marks,  such  as  priority,  independence, 
universality,  certainty,  necessity  for  man’s 
well-being,  and  immediacy.  Here  were  the 
bases  of  law  in  relation  to  social  order,  and  of 
religion  in  relation  to  the  Powers  above  man. 
These  principles  in  religion  were  five  :  (1)  that 
there  is  one  supreme  God ;  (2)  that  he  ought 
to  be  worshipped;  (3)  that  virtue  and  piety 
are  the  chief  parts  of  divine  worship ;  (4)  that 
we  ought  to  be  sorry  for  our  sins  and  repent 
of  them ;  (5)  that  divine  goodness  doth  dispense 
rewards  and  punishments  both  in  this  life  and 
after  it.  These  truths  had  been  implanted  by 
the  Creator  in  the  mind  of  man,  and  their 
subsequent  corruption  produced  the  idolatries 
of  antiquity. 

The  theory  held  its  ground  in  various  forms 
till  its  last  echoes  appeared  in  highly  tlieologic 
guise  in  the  writings  of  Mr.  Gladstone.  He 
pleaded  that  there  must  have  been  a  true 
religion  in  the  world  before  an  untrue  one 
began  to  gather  and  incrust  upon  it,  and  this 
religion  included  three  great  doctrines — the 
existence  of  the  Triune  Deity,  the  advent  of  a 
Redeemer,  and  the  power  of  the  Evil  One  and 
the  defeat  of  the  rebel  angels.  These  had 
formed  part  of  a  primeval  revelation.  In  the 
Homeric  theology  he  traced  the  first  in  the 
three  sons  of  Kronos — Zeus,  Hades,  and  Posei¬ 
don.  The  second  he  found  in  Apollo,  whose 
mother  Leto  represented  the  Woman  from 
whom  the  Redeemer  should  descend.  The 
rebel  angels  were  equated  with  the  Titans ; 


INTRODUCTORY 


33 


the  power  of  temptation  was  personified  in 
Ate ;  the  rainbow  of  the  covenant  was  identi¬ 
fied  with  Iris.  The  student  of  to-day  can 
hardly  believe  that  this  volume  could  have 
been  published  in  the  same  year  in  which 
Darwin  and  Wallace  formulated  the  new 
scientific  principle  of  “  natural  selection  55  as 
the  great  agent  in  the  formation  of  species, 
and  thus  laid  the  foundation  of  the  modern 
conception  of  evolution  (1858). 

It  is  on  this  great  idea  that  the  whole  study 
of  the  history  of  religion  is  now  firmly  estab¬ 
lished.  At  the  foundation  of  all  endeavours 
to  classify  the  multitudinous  facts  which  it 
embraces,  lies  the  conviction  that  whatever 
may  be  the  occasional  instances  of  degenera¬ 
tion  or  decline,  the  general  movement  of 
human  things  advances  from  the  cruder  and 
less  complex  to  the  more  refined  and  developed. 
In  the  range  of  knowledge,  in  the  sphere  of 
the  arts,  in  the  command  over  nature,  in  the 
stability  and  expansion  of  the  social  order, 
there  are  everywhere  signs  of  growth,  even  if 
isolated  groups,  such  as  the  Australians,  the 
Todas  of  India,  or  the  Veddas  of  Ceylon,  seem 
to  be  in  the  last  stages  of  stagnation  or  decay. 
Religion  is  one  phase  of  human  culture,  it 
expresses  man’s  attitude  to  the  powers  .around 
him  and  the  events  of  life.  Its  various  forms 
repose  upon  the  unity  of  the  race.  The 
anthropologist  is  convinced  that  if  a  new  tribe 
is  discovered  in  some  forest  in  central  Africa, 
whether  its  stature  be  large  or  small,  its 
c 


34  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


persons  will  contain  the  same  limbs  as  other 
men,  and  will  live  by  the  same  physical 
processes.  The  sociologist  expects  that  their 
social  groups  will  approximate  to  other  known 
types  of  human  relations.  The  philologist  an¬ 
ticipates  that  behind  the  obscurities  of  their 
speech  he  will  find  modes  of  thought  which  he 
can  match  elsewhere.  The  student  of  religions 
will  in  the  same  way  be  on  the  look-out  for 
customs  and  usages  akin  to  those  which  he 
already  knows ;  he  will  assume  that  under 
similar  conditions  experience  will  be  moulded 
on  similar  lines,  and  the  streams  of  thought 
and  feeling — though  small  causes  may  easily 
deflect  their  course — will  tend  to  flow  in 
parallel  channels  as  they  issue  from  minds 
of  the  same  order,  and  traverse  corresponding 
scenes. 

And  just  as  the  general  theory  of  evolution 
includes  the  unity  of  bodily  structure  and 
mental  faculty,  so  it  will  vindicate  what  may 
be  called  the  unity  of  the  religious  conscious¬ 
ness.  The  old  classifications  based  on  the 
idea  that  religions  consisted  of  a  body  of 
doctrines  which  must  be  true  or  false,  reached 
by  natural  reflection  or  imparted  by  super¬ 
natural  revelation,  disappear  before  a  wider 
view.  Theologies  may  be  many,  but  religion 
is  one.  It  was  after  this  truth  that  the  Vedic 
seers  were  groping  when  they  cried,  4 4  Men  call 
him  Indra,  Mitra,  Varuna,  Agni ;  sages  name 
variously  him  who  is  but  one  ”  ;  or  again,  44  the 
sages  in  their  hymns  give  many  forms  to  him 


INTRODUCTORY 


35 


who  is  but  one.”  When  the  Roman  Empire 
had  brought  under  one  rule  the  multitudinous 
peoples  of  Western  Asia,  North  Africa,  and 
Southern  and  Middle  Europe,  and  new  worships 
were  carried  hither  and  thither  by  priest  and 
missionary,  soldier  and  merchant  and  slave, 
the  titles  and  attributes  of  the  gods  were  freely 
blended  and  exchanged.  Thinkers  of  different 
schools  invented  various  modes  of  harmonising 
rival  cults.  When  44  Jupiter  best  and  great¬ 
est  ”  was  surrounded  by  a  vast  crowd  of  lesser 
deities,  the  philosophic  mind  discerned  a 
common  element  running  through  all  their 
worship.  44  There  is  one  Supreme  God,”  wrote 
Maximus  of  Madaura  to  Augustine,  about  a.d. 
390,  44  without  natural  offspring,  who  is,  as  it 
were,  the  God  and  Mighty  Father  of  all.  The 
powers  of  this  Deity,  diffused  through  the 
universe  which  he  has  made,  we  worship 
under  many  names,  as  we  are  all  ignorant 
of  his  true  name.  Thus  it  happens  that  while 
in  diverse  supplications  we  approach  separated, 
as  it  were,  certain  parts  of  the  Divine  Being, 
we  are  seen  in  reality  to  be  the  worshippers 
of  him  in  whom  all  these  parts  are  one.”  Here 
is  the  prayer  of  a  Blackfoot  chief  of  our  genera¬ 
tion  in  the  great  ceremonial  of  the  Sun-Dance, 
reported  by  Mr.  McClintock,1  which  blends  the 
implications  of  theology  with  the  impulses  and 
emotions  of  religion — 

44  Great  Sun  Power  !  I  am  praying  for  my 
people  that  they  may  be  happy  in  the  summer 
1  The  Old  North  Trail ,  1910,  p.  297. 


36 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


and  that  they  may  live  through  the  cold  of 
winter.  Many  are  sick  and  in  want.  Pity 
them  and  let  them  survive.  Grant  that  they 
may  live  long  and  have  abundance.  May  we 
go  through  these  ceremonies  correctly,  as  you 
taught  our  forefathers  to  do  in  the  days  that 
are  past.  If  we  make  mistakes,  pity  us  ! 

“  Help  us,  Mother  Earth  !  for  we  depend 
upon  your  goodness.  Let  there  be  rain  to 
water  the  prairies,  that  the  grass  may  grow 
long  and  the  berries  be  abundant. 

4 4  O  Morning  Star  !  when  you  look  down 
upon  us,  give  us  peace  and  refreshing  sleep. 

4  4  Great  Spirit  !  bless  our  children,  friends, 
and  visitors  through  a  happy  life.  May  our 
trails  lie  straight  and  level  before  us.  Let  us 
live  to  be  old.  We  are  all  your  children,  and 
ask  these  things  with  good  hearts.” 


CHAPTER  n 

THE  PANORAMA  OF  RELIGIONS 

Twice  in  the  history  of  the  world  has  it 
been  possible  to  survey  a  wide  panorama  of 
religions,  and  twice  has  the  interest  of  travel¬ 
lers,  men  of  science,  and  students  of  philo¬ 
sophy,  been  attracted  by  the  immense  variety 
of  worships  and  beliefs.  In  the  second  cen¬ 
tury  of  our  era  the  Roman  Empire  embraced 
an  extraordinary  range  of  nationalities  within 
its  sway.  In  the  twentieth  the  whole  history 
of  the  human  race  has  been  thrown  open  to 
the  explorer,  and  an  overwhelming  mass  of 
materials  from  every  land  confronts  him.  It 
may  be  worth  while  to  take  a  hasty  glance  at 
the  chief  groups  of  facts  that  are  thus  dis¬ 
closed,  and  make  a  sort  of  map  of  their 
relations. 


I 

The  scientific  curiosity  of  the  ancient 
Greeks  was  early  awakened,  and  Thales  of 
Miletus  (624-546  b.c.),  chief  of  the  seven 
64  wise  men,”  and  founder  of  Greek  geometry 
and  philosophy,  was  believed  to  have  studied 
under  the  priests  of  Egypt,  as  well  as  to  have 

37 


38 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


visited  Asia  and  become  acquainted  with  the 
Chaldean  astronomy.  Still  more  extensive 
travel  was  attributed  to  his  younger  con¬ 
temporary  Pythagoras,  whose  varied  learning 
was  explained  in  late  traditions  by  his  sojourn 
east  and  west,  among  the  Persian  Magi,  the 
Indian  Brahmans,  and  the  Druids  of  Gaul. 
The  first  great  record  of  observations  is  con¬ 
tained  in  the  History  of  Herodotus  of  Hali¬ 
carnassus  on  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor.  Born 
in  484  b.c.,  six  years  after  Marathon,  and 
four  years  old  when  the  Greeks  put  Xerxes 
to  flight  at  Salamis,  he  devoted  his  maturity 
to  the  record  of  the  great  international 
struggle.  Hither  and  thither  he  passed, 
collecting  information,  an  eager  student  of 
human  things.  In  Egypt  he  compared  the 
gods  with  those  of  Greece,  and  attempted 
to  distinguish  two  sets  of  elements  in  Hellenic 
religion,  Egyptian  and  Pelasgic.  He  left 
notes  on  the  Babylonians  and  the  Persians, 
on  the  Scythians  in  the  vast  tracts  east  of 
northern  Europe,  on  the  Getae  south  of  the 
Danube. 

When  the  conquests  of  Alexander  the 
Great  (356-323  b.c.)  threw  open  the  gates  of 
Asia,  a  stream  of  travellers  passed  into  Persia 
and  India,  whose  reports  were  utilised  by  the 
geographers  of  later  days.  The  religion  of 
Zoroaster,  whose  name  was  already  known 
to  Plato,  attracted  great  attention.  At  the 
court  of  Chandragupta  on  the  Ganges,  at  the 
opening  of  the  third  century  b.c.,  Megasthenes, 


THE  PANORAMA  OF  RELIGIONS  39 


the  ambassador  of  Seleucus  (who  had  suc¬ 
ceeded  to  the  dominions  of  Alexander  in 
Asia),  set  down  brief  memoranda  on  the  usages 
and  belief  of  the  Hindus  among  whom  he 
resided.  Nearer  home  the  representatives 
of  Mesopotamian  and  Egyptian  learning  com¬ 
mended  their  national  cultures  to  their  con¬ 
querors.  Berosus,  priest  of  Bel  in  Babylon, 
translated  into  Greek  a  Babylonian  work  on 
astronomy  and  astrology,  and  compiled  a 
history  of  his  country  from  ancient  documents ; 
while  his  contemporary,  Manetho,  of  Sebenny- 
tus  in  the  Nile  Delta,  undertook  a  similar 
service  for  his  native  land. 

Meanwhile  the  great  library  and  schools  at 
Alexandria  had  been  founded.  Hither  came 
students  from  many  lands ;  and  the  Christian 
fathers  Eusebius  and  Epiphanius  in  the  fourth 
century  attributed  to  the  librarian  of  the  royal 
patron  of  literature,  Ptolemy  Philadelphus 
(285-247  B.c.),  the  design  of  collecting  the 
sacred  books  of  the  Ethiopians,  Indians, 
Persians,  Elamites,  Babylonians,  Assyrians, 
Romans,  Phoenicians,  Syrians,  and  Greeks. 
The  Jews  had  settled  in  Alexandria  in  con¬ 
siderable  numbers;  they  began  to  translate 
their  Hebrew  Scriptures  into  Greek,  and 
little  by  little  they  planted  their  synagogues 
all  round  the  Eastern  Mediterranean,  and 
finally  established  their  worship  in  Rome. 
The  Egyptian  deities  in  their  turn  went 
abroad.  The  worship  of  Serapis  was  intro¬ 
duced  at  Athens.  Isis,  the  sister-wife  of 


40 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


Osiris  and  mother  of  Horus,  goddess  of  many 
functions — among  others  of  protecting  sailors 
— was  carried  round  the  Levant  to  Syria, 
Asia  Minor,  Greece,  and  as  far  north  as  the 
Hellespont  and  Thrace.  Westwards  she  was 
borne  to  Sicily  and  South  Italy.  In  due  time 
she  entered  Rome,  and  in  spite  of  senatorial 
orders  five  times  repeated  (in  the  first  century 
B.c.),  to  tear  down  her  altars  and  statues,  she 
secured  her  place,  and  received  homage  all 
through  the  West  from  the  outskirts  of  the 
Sahara  to  the  Roman  wall  north  of  our  own 
Tyne. 

The  introduction  of  Greek  gods  had  begun 
centuries  before.  As  early  as  493  B.c.,  at  a 
time  of  serious  famine,  a  temple  had  been 
built  to  Demeter,  Dionysus,  and  Persephone; 
many  others  followed;  resemblances  among 
the  native  gods  quickly  led  to  identifications ; 
and  new  forms  of  worship  tended  to  displace 
the  old.  After  another  crisis  (206  b.c.)  the 
“  Great  Mother,”  Cybele,  the  Phrygian 
goddess  of  Mount  Ida,  was  imported.  The 
black  aerolite  which  was  supposed  to  be  her 
abode,  was  presented  by  King  Attalus  to  the 
ambassadors  of  the  Roman  senate.  The 
goddess  was  solemnly  welcomed  at  the  Port 
of  Ostia,  and  was  ultimately  carried  by  noble 
Roman  ladies  on  to  the  Palatine  hill. 

The  history  of  later  days  was  full  of  notes 
upon  religion.  Caesar  interspersed  them 
among  the  narratives  of  his  campaigns  in 
Gaul;  Tacitus  drew  on  his  recollections  as 


THE  PANORAMA  OF  RELIGIONS  41 


an  officer  in  active  service  for  his  description 
of  the  Germans.  There  was  as  yet  no  litera¬ 
ture  in  Wales  or  Ireland  to  embody  the  Celtic 
traditions;  and  the  Scandinavian  Saga  was 
unborn.  But  the  geographers,  like  Strabo 
(first  century  a.d.),  collected  a  great  deal  of 
material  that  must  have  been  gathered 
ultimately  from  travellers,  soldiers,  traders, 
and  slaves.  A  wise  and  gentle  philosophic 
Greek,  Plutarch  of  Chseronea  in  Boeotia  (a.d. 
46-120),  student  at  the  university  of  Athens, 
lecturer  on  philosophy  at  Rome,  and  finally 
priest  of  Pythian  Apollo  in  his  native  city,  is 
at  home  in  many  religions.  Beside  altars  to 
the  Greek  gods  Dionysus,  Herakles,  and 
Artemis,  in  his  own  streets,  were  those  of  the 
Egyptian  Isis  and  Anubis.  The  treatise  .on 
Isis  and  Osiris  (commonly  ascribed  to  him) 
is  an  early  essay  in  comparative  religion.  In 
the  latter  half  of  the  second  century  the 
traveller  Pausanias  passes  through  Greece, 
describing  its  sacred  sites,  noting  its  monu¬ 
ments,  recording  mythological  traditions,  and 
observing  archaic  rites  In  this  fascinating 
guide-book  to  religious  practice  are  survivals 
of  ancient  savagery,  still  lingering  at  country 
shrines,  set  down  with  curious  unconsciousness 
of  their  significance.  The  historical  method 
is  as  yet  only  in  its  infancy.  But  Pausanias 
rightly  discerned  that  its  first  business  is  to 
know  the  facts. 

In  Rome,  where  ritual  tradition  held  its 
ground  with  extraordinary  tenacity  amid  the 


42  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


decay  of  belief,  Marcus  Terentius  Varro, 
renowned  for  his  wide  learning  (116-28  b.c.), 
devoted  sixteen  books  of  his  great  treatise 
on  Antiquities  to  “  Divine  Things.”  Like,.so 
many  other  precious  works  of  ancient  litera¬ 
ture  it  has  disappeared,  but  its  contents  are 
partly  known  through  its  use  by  St.  Augustine 
in  his  famous  work  on  “  The  City  of  God.” 
Following  a  division  of  the  gods  by  the  chief 
pontiff  Mucius  Scaevola,  he  treated  religion 
under  three  heads.  In  the  form  presented 
by  the  poets’  tales  of  the  gods  it  was  mythical. 
Founded  by  the  philosophers  upon  nature 
(physis)  it  was  physical.  As  administered 
by  priests  and  practised  in  cities  it  was  civil. 
It  was  an  old  notion  that  religion  was  a  legal 
convention  imposed  by  authority  for  purposes 
of  popular  control ;  and  Varro  does  not  dis¬ 
dain  to  declare  it  expedient  that  States  should 
be  deceived  in  such  matters.  This  police- 
notion  long  regulated  public  custom,  and 
tended  to  render  the  identification  of  deities 
presenting  superficial  resemblances  all  the 
more  easy. 

By  this  time  the  origin  of  the  term  cc  re¬ 
ligion  ”  had  begun  to  excite  interest,  as  its 
meaning  began  slowly  to  change.  Varro’s 
contemporaries,  Cicero  (106-43  B.c.)  and 
Lucretius  (about  97-53),  discussed  its  deriva¬ 
tion.  Cicero  connected  it  with  the  root 
legere ,  to  44  string  together,”  to  “arrange”; 
while  Lucretius  found  its  origin  in  ligare,  to 
64  bind.”  Philology  gives  little  help  when  it 


THE  PANORAMA  OF  RELIGIONS  43 


speaks  with  uncertain  voice.  More  important 
is  the  primitive  meaning  which  Mr.  Warde 
Fowler  defines  as  64  the  feeling  of  awe,  anxiety, 
doubt,  or  fear,  which  is  aroused  in  the  mind 
by  .something  that  cannot  be  explained  by  a 
man’s  experience  or  by  the  natural  course  of 
cause  and  effect,  and  which  is  therefore  re¬ 
ferred  to  the  supernatural.”  It  has  nothing 
to  do  at  the  outset  with  any  special  rites  or 
doctrines.  It  is  not  concerned  with  state - 
usage  or  with  priestly  law.  In  its  adjectival 
form  44  religious  days  ”  or  44  religious  places  ” 
are  not  days  or  places  consecrated  by  official 
practice  ;  they  are  days  and  places  which  have 
gathered  round  them  man’s  sentiments  of  awe 
and  scruple.  The  word  thus  came  to  be 
applied  to  anything  that  was  in  some  way  a 
source  or  embodiment  of  mysterious  forces. 
The  naturalist  Pliny  can  even  say  that  no 
animal  is  44  more  full  of  religion  than  the  mole,” 
because  strange  medicinal  powers  were  sup¬ 
posed  to  reside  in  its  heart  and  teeth. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  a  new  use  of  it 
passes  into  Roman  literature  in  the  writings 
of  Cicero.  The  feeling  of  awe  still  lies  in  the 
background,  but  the  word  takes  on  a  reference 
to  the  acts  which  it  prompts,  and  thus  comes 
to  denote  the  whole  group  of  rites  performed 
in  honour  of  some  divine  being.  These  make 
up  a  particular  cult  or  worship,  ordained  and 
sanctioned  by  authority  or  tradition.  44  Re¬ 
ligion  ”  thus  comes  to  mean  a  body  of  religious 
duties,  the  entire  series  of  sacred  acts  in  which 


44 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


the  primitive  feeling  is  expressed.  Roman 
antiquity  conceived  these  as  under  the  care 
of  priesthoods,  legitimated  by  the  State. 
Around  them  lay  a  fringe  of  superstitions, 
which  a  hostile  critic  like  Lucretius  could  also 
sum  up  under  the  same  term.  And  thus  in 
an  age  when  philosophy  was  addressing  itself 
to  the  whole  question  of  man’s  relation  to  the 
world  and  its  unseen  Rulers,  and  a  single 
word  was  wanted  to  describe  his  attitude  to 
the  varied  spectacle,  “  religion  ”  was  at  hand 
to  fill  the  place.  It  covered  the  whole  field 
of  human  experience,  and  as  different  nations 
presented  it  in  different  forms,  it  became 
possible  to  speak  of  “  religions  ”  in  the  sense 
of  separate  systems  of  worship  and  belief. 
The  champion  of  Christianity  naturally  dis¬ 
tinguished  his  religion  as  the  true  from  the 
false ;  and  over  against  the  multiformity  of 
polytheism  he  set  the  unity  of  the  faith  of  the 
Church. 

Of  these  “  religions  ”  history  and  philosophy 
sought  to  give  some  account.  As  will  be  seen 
hereafter  (Chap.  VI),  Babylon  and  Egypt 
both  claimed  a  divine  origin  for  their  rites, 
their  arts,  and  laws.  Plutarch  expressly 
defends  the  idea  of  revelation  in  the  cases  of 
Minos  of  Crete,  the  Persian  Zoroaster,  Zaleucus 
the  shepherd  legislator  of  the  Locrians,  Numa 
of  Rome,  and  others.  Pan  was  in  love  with 
Pindar,  and  iEsdulapius  conversed  with 
Sophocles :  if  such  divine  diversions  were 
allowed,  how  much  more  should  these  greater 


THE  PANORAMA  OF  RELIGIONS  45 


attempts  for  human  welfare  be  prompted  from 
heaven!  Numa  had  been  enabled  through 
Camena  Egeria  to  regulate  the  ceremonial  law 
as  priest-king,  and  pontiffs,  augurs,  flamens, 
virgins,  received  their  duties  from  him  with 
supernatural  sanctions. 

Philosophers,  on  the  other  hand,  discussed 
the  meaning  of  religion  upon  different  lines. 
A  wide-spread  view  already  noted  presented 
it  as  a  mere  instrument  of  policy,  devised  to 
overawe  the  intractable.  The  diversity  of 
religions  seemed  to  support  this  view.  Plato’s 
Athenian,  in  one  of  his  latest  works,  the  Laws, 
mentions  the  teaching  of  sophists  who  averred 
that  the  gods  existed  not  by  nature  but  by 
art,  and  by  the  laws  of  States  which  are 
different  in  different  places,  according  to  the 
agreement  of  those  who  make  them.  In  a 
fragment  of  a  drama  on  Sisyphus  ascribed  to 
Critias,  the  friend  of  Alcibiades,  it  was  alleged 
that  in  the  primeval  age  of  disorder  and 
violence  laws  might  strike  crimes  committed 
in  open  day,  but  could  not  touch  secret  sins, 
hidden  in  the  gloomy  depths  of  conscience. 
A  sage  advised  that  to  moralise  men  they 
must  be  made  afraid.  Let  them  invent  gods 
who  could  see  and  hear  all  things,  cognisant 
not  only  of  all  human  actions  but  also  of  men’s 
inmost  thoughts  and  purposes.  They  were 
accordingly  connected  with  the  source  of 
the  most  terrifying  and  the  most  beneficent 
phenomena,  the  sky,  home  alike  of  thunder 
and  lightning,  of  the  shining  sun  and  fertilising 


46  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


rain,  seat  of  divine  powers  helpful  and  hurtful 
to  mankind.  In  the  discussion  on  44  the 
Nature  of  the  Gods  ”  (by  Cicero),  Cotta,  of 
the  Academic  school,  inquires  of  his  Epicurean 
opponent  Velleius,  44  What  think  you  of  those 
who  have  asserted  that  the  whole  doctrine 
concerning  the  immortal  gods  was  the  in¬ 
vention  of  politicians,  whose  notion  was  to 
govern  that  part  of  the  community  which 
reason  could  not  influence,  by  religion  ?  ” 
From  another  point  of  view,  however, 
the  practical  universality  of  religion  was 
again  and  again  cited  in  proof  of  its  truth. 
Antiquity  was  not  scientific  in  its  method  of 
treatment,  and  though  it  did  not  accept  all 
religions  as  altogether  equal,  it  had  no 
difficulty  in  regarding  them  as  substantially 
homogeneous.  The  Egyptian  worship  of 
animals  might  be  lashed  with  satiric  scorn, 
but  the  mysteries  of  its  religion,  venerable 
from  an  immemorial  past,  deserved  the 
highest  respect.  The  process  of  identification 
of  the  gods  of  different  religions  was  always 
going  on  as  they  were  carried  from  land  to 
land.  The  Apologist,  therefore,  like  the  Cretan 
Cleinias  in  Plato’s  Laws  when  the  Athenian 
stranger  asked  him  to  prove  the  existence  of 
the  gods,  could  always  appeal  to  two  main 
arguments — first,  the  fair  order  of  the  universe 
and  the  regularity  of  the  seasons,  and  secondly, 
the  common  belief  of  all  men,  both  Hellenes 
and  barbarians.  This  common  belief,  how¬ 
ever,  itself  required  explanation.  Its  value 


THE  PANORAMA  OF  RELIGIONS  47 


really  depended  on  its  origin.  If  that  ranked 
no  higher  than  the  crouching  impulses  of 
fear,  it  had  little  worth.  Even  if  it  was  sought 
in  the  sense  of  dependence,  in  quiet  trust  in  a 
sheltering  order,  or  in  intelligent  inference 
based  on  the  demand  for  a  cause,  the  question 
still  pressed  for  an  answer,  “  What  made  this 
possible  ?  ”  The  answer  was  given  by  the 
doctrine  of  the  Logos . 

The  term  logos  has  played  a  famous  part 
in  philosophical  theology.  It  appears  in  our 
New  Testament  at  the  opening  of  the  fourth 
Gospel,  44  In  the  beginning  was  the  Logos.” 
Our  translators  render  the  Greek  term  by 
the  English  44  Word.”  It  is  derived  from  the 
verb  legein,  to  46  speak  ”  or  44  say.”  Logos  is 
primarily  44  what  is  said,”  utterance,  or  speech. 
Speech,  however,  must  mean  something. 
When  we  look  out  upon  the  objects  of  the 
world  around  us — rock,  river,  tree,  horse, 
star — we  learn  to  separate  them  into  groups, 
because  while  some  say  quite  different  things 
to  us,  others  speak  to  us,  as  it  were,  with 
nearly  the  same  meaning.  We  recognise  a 
common  meaning  in  various  sorts  of  dogs,  or 
in  still  larger  classes  such  as  the  whole  family 
of  birds.  But  in  human  intercourse  what  is 
said  has  first  been  thought.  Logos  thus  takes 
on  another  meaning ;  it  is  what  thinking  says 
to  itself ,  or  what  we  call  44  reason.”  The 
processes  of  science  consist  in  finding  out 
these  meanings  or  reasons,  and  getting  them 
into  intelligible  relations  with  each  other. 


48 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


And  when  the  early  Greek  thinkers  had  reached 
the  conception  of  the  unity  of  the  world,  here 
was  a  term  which  could  be  called  in  to  express 
it.  The  world  must  have  a  meaning ;  it  must 
express  some  thought.  And  did  not  thought 
imply  thinking  ? 

The  philosophy  of  Heracleitus  64  the 
Obscure  ”  (at  Ephesus,  500  b.c.)  has  .re¬ 
ceived  in  modern  times  widely  different  inter¬ 
pretations  ;  but  whether  or  not  the  Stoics 
were  right  in  understanding  his  doctrine  of 
the  Logos  to  imply  the  existence  of  a  cosmic 
reason  universally  diffused,  present  both  in 
nature  and  man,  it  is  certain  that  such  ideas 
appear  soon  afterwards  in  Greek  literature. 
Pindar  affirms  the  derivation  of  the  soul  from 
the  gods.  Plato  and  Euripides  declare  the 
intelligence  of  man  both  in  nature  and  origin 
to  be  divine;  and  Pseudo -Epicharmus  lays 
it  down  (in  the  second  half  of  the  fifth  century) 
that 44  there  is  in  man  understanding,  and  there 
is  also  a  divine  Logos ;  but  the  understanding 
of  man  is  born  from  the  divine  Logos.”  On 
this  basis  the  Stoics  worked  out  the  con¬ 
ception  of  a  fellowship  between  man  and  God 
which  explained  the  universality  of  religion. 
Its  seat  was  in  human  nature.  Every  one 
shared  in  the  Generative  Reason,  the  Seminal 
Word  (the  Logos  spermatikos).  In  the  long 
course  of  ages,  says  Cicero,  when  the  time 
arrived  for  the  sowing  of  the  human  race, 
God  quickened  it  with  the  gift  of  souls.  So 
we  possess  a  certain  kinship  with  the  heavenly 


THE  PANORAMA  OF  RELIGIONS  49 


Powers;  and  while  among  all  the  kinds  of 
animals  Man  alone  retains  any  idea  of  Deity, 
among  men  themselves  there  is  no  nation  so 
savage  as  not  to  admit  the  necessity  of  believing 
in  a  God,  however  ignorant  they  may  be  what 
sort  of  God  they  ought  to  believe  in. 

The  part  played  by  this  doctrine  in  the  early 
Church  is  well  known.  When  the  new  faith 
began  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  educated, 
it  was  impossible  that  the  resemblances  be¬ 
tween  Christian  and  Hellenic  monotheism 
should  be  ignored.  Philosophy  had  reached 
many  of  the  same  truths,  and  poets  and  sages 
bore  the  same  witness  to  the  unity  and 
spirituality  of  God  as  the  prophets  and 
psalmists  of  Israel.  It  was  easy  to  suggest 
that  the  Hebrew  seers  had  been  the  teachers 
of  the  Greek;  might  not  Plato,  for  instance, 
have  learned  of  Jeremiah  in  Egypt  ?  On 
the  other  hand,  the  pleas  of  chronological 
and  literary  dependence  might  be  insufficient ; 
there  were  radical  differences  as  well  as 
resemblances ;  the  Apologist  might  deride  the 
diversities  of  opinion  and  make  merry  over 
the  contradictions  of  the  schools.  Neverthe¬ 
less  Christianity  was  often  presented  by  its 
defenders  as  44  our  philosophy.”  The  Latin 
writer  Minucius  Felix  (in  the  second  century) 
is  so  much  struck  by  the  parallels  in  the 
higher  thought  that  he  boldly  declares,  44  One 
might  think  either  that  Christians  are  now 
philosophers,  or  that  philosophers  were  then 
already  Christian.”  The  martyr  Justin  (about 
D 


50  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


a.d.  150)  incorporates  such  teachings  into  the 
scheme  of  Providence  by  the  aid  of  the  Logos. 
For  Justin,  as  for  his  co -believers,  the  popular 
religion  was  the  work  of  demons.  But 
philosophy  had  combated  them  in. the  past  like 
the  new  faith.  If  Socrates  had  striven  to 
deliver  men  from  them,  and  they  had  com¬ 
passed  his  death  through  evil  men,  it  was 
because  the  Logos  condemned  their  doings 
among  the  Greeks  through  him,  just  as  among 
the  barbarians  they  were  condemned  by  the 
Logos  in  the  person  of  Christ.  The  great 
truths  of  God  and  Providence,  of  the  unity 
of  the  moral  government  of  the  world,  of  the 
nature  and  destiny  of  man,  of  freedom,  virtue, 
and  retribution,  which  were  to  be  found  in 
the  writings  of  the  wisest  of  the  past,  were 
the  product  of  “  the  seed  of  the  Logos  im¬ 
planted  in  every  race  of  men.”  Those  who 
had  lived  with  the  Logos  were  Christians 
before  Christ,  though  men  might  have  called 
them  atheists,  like  Heracleitus  and  Socrates. 
All  noble  utterances  in  theology  or  legislation 
arose  through  partial  discovery  or  contempla¬ 
tion  of  the  Logos,  and  consequently  Justin 
could  boldly  claim  “  whatever  things  have 
been  rightly  said  among  all  men  ”  as  44  the 
property  of  us  Christians.” 

The  cultivated  and  mystical  Clement,  who 
became  head  of  the  catechetical  school  of 
Alexandria  towards  the  close  of  the  second 
century,  enforced  the  same  theme.  An 
enormous  reader,  he  loved  to  compare  the 


THE  PANORAMA  OF  RELIGIONS  51 


truths  enunciated  by  Greek  poets  and  philo¬ 
sophers  with  the  wisdom  of  the  barbarians. 
Philosophy,  indeed,  was  a  special  historical 
manifestation  of  thought  along  a  peculiar 
line  of  development.  It  affected  a  particular 
race,  it  spread  over  a  distinct  area,  and 
appeared  in  a  definite  time.  In  these  respects 
it  resembled  the  preparatory  work  of  Israel 
itself.  It  was  a  discipline  of  Providence,  so 
that  beside  the  generalisation  of  St.  Paul 
that  the  Law  had  been  a  tutor  to  bring  the 
Jews  to  Christ,  Clement  could  set  another, 
that  philosophy  had  played  the  same  part 
for  the  Greeks.  On  the  field  of  common 
speech  Clement’s  contemporary,  the  fiery 
Tertullian  of  Carthage,  appealed  to  the 
worshipper  who  bore  the  garland  of  Ceres  on 
his  brow,  or  walked  in  the  purple  cloak  of 
Saturn,  or  wore  the  white  robe  of  Egyptian 
Isis — what  did  he  mean  by  exclaiming  “  May 
God  repay  !  ”  or  44  God  shall  judge  between 
us  ?  ”  Here  was  a  recognition  of  a  supreme 
authority  and  power,  the  44  testimony  of  a 
soul  naturally  Christian.” 

Such  comparisons,  however,  had  a  very 
different  side.  Greece  had  long  had  its  secret 
mysteries,  with  their  sacred  initiations,  their 
rites  of  purity  and  enlightenment,  their 
promises  of  welfare  beyond  the  grave.  When 
the  new  deities  from  Asia  Minor,  from  Egypt, 
Syria,  and  the  further  East,  were  brought  to 
Italy,  the  resemblances  of  their  practice  to 
that  of  the  Christian  Church  excited  the 
D  2 


52 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


believer’s  alarm,  and  roused  at  once  the 
charge  of  plagiarism.  There  was  a  congre¬ 
gation  of  Mithra  at  Rome  as  early  as  67  b.c., 
and  towards  the  end  of  the  first  century  of 
our  era  his  mysteries  began  to  be  widely 
spread.  Here  was  a  baptism;  here  was  a 
“  sacrament  ”  as  the  neophyte  took  the  oath 
on  entering  the  warfare  with  evil;  here  were 
grades  of  soldiership  and  service;  here  were 
oblations  of  bread  and  water  mingled  with 
wine  which  were  naturally  compared  with 
the  Lord’s  supper;  here  were  doctrines  of 
deliverance  from  sin,  of  judgment  after  death 
and  ascent  to  heaven,  which  brought  the 
theology  and  practice  of  Mithraism  very  close 
to  that  of  the  Church.  So  Mithra  bore  the 
august  titles  of  the  holy  and  righteous  God; 
or  he  was  the  Mediator,  author  of  order  in 
nature  and  of  victory  in  life  between  the 
ultimate  powers  of  good  and  evil. 

For  a  time  the  rivalry  was  acute,  as  his 
worship  was  carried  through  the  West  as  far 
as  York  and  Chester  and  the  Tyne.  But 
with  the  triumph  of  Christianity  in  the  fourth 
century  the  sounds  of  conflict  die  away.  The 
men  of  learning,  Eusebius  of  Csesarea  (about 
a.d.  260-340),  Augustine  (a.d.  354-430) 

bishop  of  Hippo,  surveyed  the  religions  and 
philosophies  of>  antiquity  as  conquerors.  The 
faiths  of  Egypt,  Phoenicia,  Greece,  and  Rome, 
are  passed  in  review.  With?a  broad  sweep 
of  learning  Eusebius  comments  on  the  ancient 
mythologies,  the  oracles,  the  theory  of  demons, 


THE  PANORAMA  OF  RELIGIONS  53 


the  practice  of  human  sacrifice,  the  history  of 
Mosaism.  His  treatise  on  the  44  Preparation 
for  the  Gospel  55  is  the  first  great  work  on  com¬ 
parative  religion  which  issued  out  of  Christian 
theology.  With  generous  recognition  of  what 
lay  beyond  the  Church  he  taught  (in  the 
Theophania)  that  all  higher  culture  was  due 
to  participation  in  the  Logos.  Idolatry  might 
be  the  work  of  demons ;  the  world  might  be 
filled  with  the  babblings  of  philosophers  and 
the  follies  of  poets;  but  the  Logos  had  been 
continuously  present,  sowing  in  the  hearts 
of  men  the  rudiments  of  the  divine  laws,  of 
various  orders  of  teaching,  of  doctrines  of 
every  kind.  Thus  ethics,  art,  science,  and 
the  fairest  products  of  human  thought,  were 
genially  brought  within  the  scope  of 
Revelation. 


II 

The  panorama  of  religions  unrolled  before 
the  student  of  the  present  day  is  far  vaster 
than  that  which  offered  itself  to  the  thinkers 
of  Greece  and  Rome,  and  its  meaning  is 
far  better  understood.  When  Pausanias  de¬ 
scribes  the  daily  sacrifice  to  a  hero  at  Tronis 
in  Phocis,  where  the  blood  of  the  victim  was 
poured  down  through  a  hole  in  the  grave  to 
the  dead  man  within,  while  the  flesh  was  eaten 
on  the  spot,  he  notes,  like  the  careful  author 
of  a  guide-book,  a  curious  local  usage,  but  he 
does  not  know  that  it  belongs  to  a  group  of 


54 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


savage  practices  that  may  be  traced  all  round 
the  globe.  On  Mount  Lycaeus  in  Arcadia,  he 
tells  us,  was  a  spring  which  flowed  with  equal 
quantity  in  summer  as  in  winter.  In  time  of 
drought  the  priest  of  Lycaean  Zeus,  after  due 
prayer  and  sacrifice,  would  dip  an  oak-branch 
into  the  surface  of  the  spring,  and  a  mist -like 
vapour  would  rise  and  become  a  cloud.  In 
the  midst  of  Hellenic  culture  it  was  still 
possible,  as  among  the  negroes  of  West  Africa 
or  the  Indians  of  North  America,  to  make 
rain. 

From  continent  to  continent  a  multitude 
of  observers  have  gathered  an  immense  range 
of  facts,  which  show  that  amid  numerous 
differences  in  detail  the  religions  of  the  lower 
culture  may  all  be  ranked  together  on  the 
basis  of  a  common  interpretation  of  the  sur¬ 
rounding  world.  Philosophy  suggests  that 
man  can  only  explain  nature  in  terms  of  his 
own  experience.  He  is  encompassed  by 
powers  that  are  continually  acting  on  him, 
as  he  to  a  much  smaller  extent  can  in  his  turn 
act  on  them.  By  various  processes  of  obser¬ 
vation  and  reflection  (p.  85),  he  comes  to 
the  conclusion  that  within  his  body  lives 
something  which  enables  it  to  move  and  feel 
and  think  and  will,  until  at  death  it  goes 
away.  To  this  mysterious  something  many 
names  are  given,  and  for  purposes  of  modern 
study  they  are  all  ranked  under  the  term 
“  spirits.”  This  explanation  is  then  applied 
to  the  behaviour  of  all  kinds  of  objects  within 


THE  PANORAMA  OF  RELIGIONS  55 


his  view ;  though  it  does  not  at  all  follow  that 
this  was  actually  the  first  explanation.  The 
animals  that  are  stronger  and  more  cunning 
than  himself,  the  trees  that  move  in  the 
wind,  the  corn  that  grows  so  mysteriously, 
the  bubbling  spring,  even  the  things  that  he 
himself  has  made,  his  weapons,  tools,  and 
jars,  all  have  their  “spirits,”  so  that  the  entire 
scene  of  his  existence  is  pervaded  by  them. 
To  this  doctrine,  with  its  many  branches  of 
belief  and  practice,  Sir  E.  B.  Tylor,  in  his 
classical  work  on  Primitive  Culture  (1871), 
gave  the  name  of  “Animism,”  and  the  re¬ 
ligions  founded  upon  it  are  called  “  anim¬ 
istic,”  or  sometimes,  from  the  multitude  of 
unorganised  spirits  which  they  recognise, 
“  polydaemonistic  ”  religions. 

Such  religions  belong  to  no  specific  ethnic 
group.  They  appear  either  in  existing  prac¬ 
tice  or  in  the  shape  of  occasional  survivals 
in  all  of  the  three  great  racial  divisions  of 
mankind — the  white  or  Caucasic,  the  yellow 
or  Mongolian,  and  the  black  or  Negroid. 
They  are  to  be  found  under  the  Equator  and 
among  the  Arctic  snows.  They  are  some¬ 
times  associated  with  a  peculiar  form  of 
social  structure  regulating  inter-tribal  re¬ 
lations  known  as  totemism.  It  was  at  one 
time  supposed  that  this  designated  a  stage  of 
evolution  through  which  all  peoples  had  passed. 
The  totem  or  clan-sign,  whether  animal  or 
plant,  or  more  rarely  an  inanimate  object  like 
wind,  sun,  or  star,  was  supposed  to  have 


56 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


become  an  object  of  worship,  and  various 
theories  were  invented  to  explain  the  divisions 
and  subdivisions  of  the  clans,  and  the  selection 
of  their  special  signs.  Hence,  it  was  argued, 
came  the  cultus  of  beast  and  bird  and  tree; 
hence  the  altar  and  the  idol ;  hence  the  animal 
sacrifice  and  the  sacramental  meal.  In  clever 
hands  it  supplied  a  universal  key.  The 
extraordinary  intricacy  of  the  subject,  and 
the  widely  scattered  character  of  the  evidence, 
prevent  any  discussion  here.  But  the  most 
recent  researches  have  not  sustained  these 
attempts.  Among  the  Central  Australian 
tribes  the  totems  are  not  worshipped,  they 
are  in  no  sense  deities,  no  prayers  or  sacrifices 
are  offered  to  them.  They  may  be  brought 
into  the  sphere  of  religion  in  some  tribes  as 
part  of  a  social  order  to  which  a  superhuman 
origin  is  ascribed  (p.  171).  But  totemism 
cannot  be  established  as  the  typical  form  of 
“primitive  religion  ”  any  more  than  any  other 
complicated  system.  Its  general  diffusion  is 
questionable.  At  the  present  day  there  are 
large  areas  over  which  no  signs  of  totemic 
organisation  are  found ;  and  many  phenomena 
which  were  formerly  assumed  to  be  proofs  of 
totemism  in  the  higher  religions  of  antiquity, 
in  Egypt,  Greece,  and  Italy,  now  receive  other 
explanations. 

The  higher  forms  of  animistic  religion  pass 
out  into  polytheisms  of  more  or  less  dignity. 
They  do  not  succeed  in  embodying  themselves 
in  permanent  literary  product,  they  create  no 


THE  PANORAMA  OF  RELIGIONS  57 

scriptures  or  sacred  books.  They  have  their 
rude  chants,  their  songs  for  weddings  and 
funerals,  their  genealogies  and  tales  of  ancient 
heroes.  Strange  cosmogonies  float  from 
island  to  island  in  Polynesia.  The  Finnic 
peoples  enshrined  their  faith  in  the  ballads 
collected  under  the  name  of  the  Kalevala. 
Among  the  Indians  of  North  America  specula¬ 
tion  is  sometimes  highly  elaborated  in  mytho- 
logic  tradition ;  and  out  of  the  fusion  of 
nationalities  in  Mexico  rose  a  developed 
polytheism  in  which  lofty  religious  sentiment 
seems  strangely  blended  with  a  hideous  and 
sanguinary  ritual.  Peru,  no  less,  presented 
to  the  Spanish  conquerors  bewildering  and 
incongruous  aspects.  In  these  two  cultures 
native  American  civilisation  reached  its 
highest  forms.  In  Mexico  the  apparatus  of 
religion  was  very  minutely  organised.  There 
were  immense  temples,  which  required  large 
numbers  of  priests  and  servitors.  The  capital 
alone  is  said  to  have  contained  2000  sacred 
buildings,  and  the  great  temple  had  a  staff 
of  5000  priests.  There  were  religious  orders 
and  temple -schools ;  rites  of  baptism  and 
circumcision;  feasts  and  sacrifices  and  sacra¬ 
ments,  in  which  the  monkish  chroniclers 
found  strange  parallels  to  their  own  practice. 
The  issues  of  victory  were  disastrous.  With 
the  death  of  the  last  Aztec  emperor  (1520) 
the  doom  of  the  old  gods  was  assured,  and  the 
Inquisition  (1571)  completed  what  the  sword 
of  Cortes  had  begun. 


58 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


In  the  old  world  Asia  has  been  the  mother 
of  religions,  but  various  fates  have  befallen 
her  offspring.  The  ancient  cults  of  Babylonia, 
after  an  existence  longer  than  the  period  from 
Moses  to  the  present  day,  vanished  from  the 
scene.  The  teachings  of  Zoroaster  were 
planted  in  China  in  a.d.  621,  and  a  temple 
was  erected  at  the  capital,  Changan ;  but  the 
Persian  faith  could  not  maintain  itself  in  such 
a  different  culture.  After  the  Mohammedan 
conquest  in  the  eighth  century  it  was  finally 
carried  by  a  little  band  of  exiles  into  India, 
and  is  still  cherished  by  their  descendants 
who  bear  the  name  of  Parsees.  The  Jew  and 
the  Christian  have  only  a  precarious  tolera¬ 
tion  in  the  land  which  was  once  their  home. 
In  India  and  in  China  alone  is  the  religion  of 
to-day  linked  in  unbroken  continuity  with 
the  distant  past.  Islam  may  set  itself  in 
lineal  succession  to  the  teachers  of  old,  and 
claim  a  place  for  Mohammed  in  the  sequence 
of  Abraham,  Moses,  and  Christ.  But  it  is 
the  youngest,  and  in  some  respects  the  least 
original,  of  the  world’s  great  faiths. 

India  has  its  own  panorama  of  religions, 
from  the  animistic  practice  of  the  tribes 
of  the  jungle  and  the  hills,  up  to  the  refined 
pantheism  of  the  philosophical  school. 
Diversities  of  race  have  been  strangely  inter¬ 
mingled,  and  fifty  languages  make  it  im¬ 
possible  to  secure  any  uniformity  of  culture. 
There  are  the  descendants  of  the  ancient 
inhabitants  who  occupied  the  country  before 


THE  PANORAMA  OF  RELIGIONS  59 


the  Aryan  ancestors  of  the  Hindus  settled 
themselves  upon  the  fertile  lands.  They 
are  represented  to-day  by  the  wild  tribes  of 
Central  India  such  as  the  Bhils  and  Gonds. 
Some  ten  million  probably  profess  a  religion 
of  a  well-marked  animistic  type.  Rut  this 
also  lies  at  the  base  of  wide-spread  popular 
belief  and  custom,  where  the  propitiation  of 
spirits,  the  cultus  of  Mother  Earth,  and  the 
veneration  of  village  deities,  engage  much 
more  attention  than  the  higher  gods  of 
Hinduism. 

The  literary  foundation  of  the  religions  of 
India  lies  in  the  ancient  hymns  of  the  Rig 
Veda,  sung  by  the  immigrant  Aryans  as  they 
entered  from  the  North-west  and  gradually 
established  themselves  in  the  Ganges  valley. 
These  hymns  were  addressed  to  gods  of  earth 
and  air  and  sky;  they  celebrated  the  glories 
of  dawn  and  day;  they  told  of  the  conflict 
between  sunshine  and  storm;  they  praised 
Agni,  the  god  of  fire,  messenger  between 
heaven  and  earth,  himself  as  agent  of  the 
sacrifice  a  kind  of  priest  among  the  gods; 
they  commemorated  the  dead  who  passed 
into  the  upper  world  and  adorned  the  sky 
with  stars.  Already  in  some  of  the  later 
hymns  the  poet’s  thought  endeavoured  to 
find  some  principle  or  power  that  should 
unite  these  different  agencies  as  manifestations 
of  one  ultimate  reality ;  and  philosophic 
imagination  at  length  fixed  on  the  conception 
of  Brahman,  a  term  whose  original  meaning 


60 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


seems  to  hover  between  that  of  sacred  spell 
and  prayer.  Viewed  in  a  personal  aspect 
(Brahma)  as  a  god  of  popular  worship,  he 
could  be  described  as  “  Lord  of  all,  the  Maker, 
the  Creator,  Father  of  all  that  are  and  are  to 
be.”  1  But  behind  this  sovereign  ruler  meta¬ 
physical  abstraction  placed  a  neuter  Brahma, 
all-embracing,  the  ground  of  all  existence, 
summed  up  in  three  terms — Being,  Thought, 
and  Bliss.  Here  was  the  ultimate  Self  of  the 
whole  universe ;  and  to  know  the  identity 
of  the  human  self  with  the  Absolute,  to  be 
able  to  repeat  the  mysterious  words  tat 
tvam  asi ,  14  that  art  thou,”  was  the  aim  of 
the  forest-sages  and  the  highest  attainment  of 
holy  insight. 

Meantime  the  social  order  was  acquiring 
the  first  forms  of  caste.  The  priests  and  the 
fighting  men,  the  people  who  settled  on  the 
lands  for  pasture  and  tillage,  and  the  tribes 
of  aborigines  whom  they  dispossessed  and 
subdued,  formed  the  basis  of  divisions  which 
were  gradually  multiplied  with  extraordinary 
complexity.  A  religious  authority  was  found 
for  the  whole  system  in  the  teachings  of  the 
Veda,  and  to  contest  its  claims  was  to  defy 
the  power  which  slowly  spread  with  subtle 
hold  through  the  whole  peninsula.  By  its 
side  arose  the  doctrine  of  the  Deed  ( karma , 
p.  217),  which  explained  the  varied  con¬ 
ditions  of  human  life  by  the  principle  that 

1  So  in  the  early  Buddhist  texts  describing  the  popular 
religion.  Many  new  forms  appear  in  these  documents. 


THE  PANORAMA  OF  RELIGIONS  61 


“  a  man  is  born  into  the  world  that  he  has 
made.”  The  lot  of  each  individual  had  a 
moral  meaning  :  it  was  the  result  of  previous 
conduct,  good  or  ill.  This  is  the  conception 
embodied  in  the  word  “  transmigration.”  It 
pictures  man  as  involved  in  a  continuous  series 
of  births  and  deaths,  and  religion  and  philo¬ 
sophy  undertook  in  their  several  ways  to 
secure  him  a  favourable  destiny  hereafter,  or 
by  various  means  of  divine  grace,  or  strenuous 
self-discipline,  or  pious  contemplation,  to 
extricate  him  altogether  from  the  weary  round 
of  ignorance  and  pain. 

Out  of  these  elements,  a  crude  and  ever- 
varying  animism  at  the  bottom,  a  highly 
refined  metaphysical  pantheism  at  the  top, 
figures  of  incarnation  and  deliverance,  the 
cultus  of  the  dead,  caste,  and  transmigration, 
the  complex  strands  of  modern  Hinduism 
have  been  woven.  Many  have  been  the 
growths  upon  the  way.  The  early  Buddhist 
texts,  representing  the  society  of  the  64  Middle 
Country,”  show  already  in  the  fifth  century 
B.c.  a  surprising  activity  of  speculation,  busily 
engaged  in  questioning  every  received  doctrine 
of  religion  and  morals.  Some  forms  held 
their  ground  for  a  few  centuries  and  then 
disappeared.  One  religious  community  of 
that  date  alone  survives,  viz.  the  Jains,  who 
still  number  about  a  million  and  a  third. 
Buddhism,  after  sending  out  its  missionaries 
into  Ceylon  in  the  south  and  China  in  the 
north,  was  driven  from  its  ancient  seats,  and 


62 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


only  some  300,000  hold  its  creed  in  India 
itself.  In  Burma,  however,  it  numbers  between 
ten  and  eleven  million  lay  adherents,  and  in 
the  adjacent  kingdom  of  Siam  it  has  13,000 
temples,  and  more  than  93,000  mendicants 
have  taken  its  vows. 

But  Hinduism  still  lives  on  with  a  marvel¬ 
lous  and  self-renewing  power.  Two  great 
divine  figures  have  been  set  beside  the  original 
creative  Brahma,  representatives  of  the  forces 
that  preserve  and  destroy,  Vishnu  and  Qiva 
(p.  128).  Vishnu  succeeded  to  the  place 
of  the  Buddha ;  and  Hindu  religion  gave 
prominence  in  him  to  the  conception  of  a 
Divine  Person  who  out  of  love  for  man 
assumed  human  shape  to  conquer  evil  and 
establish  truth.  The  worship  of  Civa  has 
been  carried  everywhere  by  the  Brahmans; 
if  he  destroys,  he  also  reproduces ;  he,  too, 
appears  to  bless  and  help,  and  the  Tamil 
poets  of  South  India  in  the  early  Middle  Ages 
sang  his  praises  in  hymns  that  still  feed  the 
piety  of  the  people.  Again  and  again  re¬ 
forming  teachers  have  initiated  movements 
on  behalf  of  spiritual  religion.  Their  followers 
have  multiplied  and  broken  up  into  sects, 
but  still  remain  within  the  general  area  of 
the  ancestral  faith,  which  now  embraces  con¬ 
siderably  more  than  200  million  souls.  The 
disciples  of  Nanak  (1469-1538),  however, 
known  as  Sikhs,  formed  into  a  semi-military 
organisation  by  the  Guru  Gobind  “  the  Lion  ” 
(1675-1708),  retain  their  religious  indepen- 


THE  PANORAMA  OF  RELIGIONS  63 


dence,  touching  Hinduism  on  one  side  and 
Mohammedanism  on  the  other.  They  number 
at  the  present  day  more  than  two  millions,  and 
are  found  almost  exclusively  in  the  Punjab. 

China,  like  India,  illustrates  the  principle 
of  religious  continuity.  Its  earliest  historic 
date  is  fixed  by  an  eclipse  in  776  b.c.  ;  and  the 
traditions  of  its  dynasties  stretch  more  than 
a  thousand  years  beyond.  The  ancient  re¬ 
ligion  depicted  in  the  books  known  as  the 
Shu  and  the  Shi  Kings ,  which  Confucius  (550- 
478  b.c.)  was  supposed  to  have  edited  out 
of  much  older  documents,  rested  upon  the 
solemn  order  of  the  living  Heaven  and  Earth, 
with  multitudinous  ranks  of  associated  spirits, 
and  the  generations  of  the  dead.  This  has 
remained  the  formal  basis  of  the  national 
religion  (p.  97).  Meanwhile  the  ethical  say¬ 
ings  of  Confucius  acquired  extraordinary  as¬ 
cendency.  They  formed  the  chief  element 
in  the  national  education,  and  supplied  the 
ideals  of  popular  culture.  Carried  into  Japan 
in  the  sixth  century  of  our  era,  they  filled  a 
gap  in  the  old  Japanese  teaching,  which  we 
know  by  the  name  of  Shin-To  or  44  Spirits’ 
way.”  Confucius  himself  became  the  object 
of  general  commemorative  homage ;  and 
annual  ceremonies  are  still  celebrated  in  his 
honour  with  great  splendour  in  the  Confucian 
temples  which  adorn  every  city  within  the 
empire  above  a  certain  rank.1 

1  These  are  at  present  in  danger,  like  other  public 
forms  of  Chinese  State  Religion,  of  being  rudely  abolished. 


64 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


In  the  popular  religion  demonology  and 
magic  play  a  constant  part,  and  numerous 
growths  out  of  the  worship  of  ancestors  pro¬ 
vide  ever  fresh  additions  to  the  higher  ranks 
of  spirits.  These  are  regulated  tby  decrees 
of  the  Board  of  Rites,  one  of  the  most  ancient 
religious  institutions  in  China.  The  spirit 
of  a  departed  governor,  perhaps  two  centuries 
ago,  is  believed  to  have  appeared  in  time  of 
flood,  and  by  his  beneficent  influence  dangers 
have  been  averted.  Memorials  are  sent  up 
to  Peking  by  the  local  authorities,  and  after 
repeated  manifestations  divine  honours  are 
awarded.  Beneath  these  august  personages 
are  the  spirits  which  preside  over  the  trades 
and  professions,  over  the  parts  of  a  house — - 
the  door,  the  bed,  or  the  kitchen  range — over 
the  breeding  of  domestic  animals,  and  a  large 
variety  of  occupations,  to  say  nothing  of 
medicine  and  disease,  the  limbs  of  the  body, 
and  the  stars.  They  are  analogous  to  the 
Kami ,  the  equivalent  powers  in  Japan  (p.  91) ; 
and  they  are  not  without  parallel  in  religions 
further  west. 

Half  a  century  before  Confucius,  in  604, 
was  born  another  sage,  known  in  history  as 
Lao  Tsze.  Fragments  of  his  teaching  are 
embodied  in  a  small  book  of  aphorisms,  con¬ 
cerned  with  the  doctrine  of  the  Tao,  the  way, 
the  path,  or  course.  In  nature  this  corre¬ 
sponded  to  the  ordered  round  of  the  seasons, 
and  the  regularities  which  we  call  laws.  In 
man  it  might  be  seen  in  the  line  of  right 


THE  PANORAMA  OF  RELIGIONS  65 


conduct,  and  the  inner  principles  which 
pointed  to  it.  On  this  conception,  which  was 
much  older  than  Lao  Tsze  himself,  a  kind  of 
metaphysical  mysticism  was  reared  by  later 
disciples,  not  without  affinities  with  some 
aspects  of  the  Brahmanical  philosophy.  They 
have  been  explained  by  suggestions  of  travel 
and  contact  which  more  careful  study  cannot 
justify.  The  religion  of  the  Tao  (whence  the 
name  Taoism)  could  never  have  been  popular 
had  it  not  become  strangely  entangled  with 
alchemy  and  transformed  under  the  influence 
of  its  later  rival,  Buddhism,  from  which  it 
derived  much  both  in  ritual,  in  ethics,  and  in 
doctrine. 

The  statements  about  the  appearance  of 
Buddhist  teachers  and  Buddhist  books  in 
China  before  our  era  have  been  much  dis¬ 
puted  :  the  first  trustworthy  record  relates 
that  in  the  year  a.d.  65,  a  deputation  of 
eighteen  persons  was  sent  to  Khotan  to  make 
inquiries,  and  they  returned  two  years  later 
with  books  and  images  and  a  teacher.  A 
second  teacher  arrived  shortly  after,  a  temple 
was  built  at  the  imperial  capital,  Lo-Yang,  and 
the  laborious  work  of  translation  was  begun. 
A  stream  of  missionaries,  Hindus,  Parthians, 
Huns,  slowly  flowed  into  the  Flowery  Land, 
“  moved,”  says  the  chronicler,  “  by  the  desire 
to  convert  the  world.”  After  a  while  the 
Chinese  students  sought  the  holy  places  in 
India,  and  learned  Sanskrit  at  the  great 
Buddhist  university  at  Nalanda,  near  Buddha 

E 


66 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


Gaya.  Vast  collections  of  sacred  literature 
were  gathered.  The  first  Chinese  catalogue, 
dated  a.d.  520,  enumerates  2,213  distinct 
works.  Twelve  successive  revisions  were 
made  under  imperial  order,  and  to  the  last, 
in  1737,  the  Emperor  himself,  following  the 
example  of  some  of  his  predecessors,  con¬ 
tributed  a  preface. 

Opposed  again  and  again  by  the  Confucian 
literati ,  its  temples  destroyed,  its  religious 
houses  suppressed,  its  monks  and  nuns  driven 
back  into  the  world,  Buddhism  has  still  lived 
on.  It  has  created  impressive  devotions,  and 
generated  numerous  sects.  It  has  spread 
through  Corea,  Mongolia,  and  Japan ;  on 
the  west  it  is  planted  in  Tibet.  It  has  exer¬ 
cised  immense  influence  on  Chinese  culture; 
architecture,  art  and  letters  being  all  deeply 
indebted  to  it.  In  numerical  estimates  of 
different  religions  common  in  the  last  century 
Buddhism  always  headed  the  list,  for  the 
whole  population  of  China — vaguely  reckoned 
at  400,000,000 — was  included  in  its  fold. 
Such  estimates  are  no  longer  trustworthy.1 
The  ancestral  cultus  of  the  dead  under  the 
shelter  of  Confucianism,  the  rites  of  Taoist 
and  of  Buddhist  priests,  are  strangely  blended. 
The  incidents  of  life  from  birth  to  death  are 
never  completed  without  help  from  one  or 
other  of  the  two  faiths  once  rivals,  and  now 

1  The  latest  official  estimate,  February  1911,  based  on  a 
reckoning  of  families,  gives  312,400,590  for  the  total 
Chinese  people. 


THE  PANORAMA  OF  RELIGIONS  67 


so  curiously  intertwined.  As  early  as  the 
sixth  century  a  famous  Buddhist  scholar 
Fu  Hhi  was  asked  by  the  Emperor  Wu-ti  if 
he  was  a  Buddhist,  and  he  pointed  to  his  Taoist 
cap.  “  Are  you  a  Taoist  ?  ”  he  showed  his 
Confucian  shoes.  “Are  you  a  Confucian  ?  ” 
he  wore  a  Buddhist  scarf.  When  the  Abbe 
Hue  made  his  famous  journey  two  genera¬ 
tions  ago,  he  observed  that  when  strangers 
met,  politeness  required  that  each  should  ask 
his  neighbour,  “  To  what  sublime  religion  do 
you  belong  ?  ”  The  first  might  be  a  Con¬ 
fucian,  the  second  a  Taoist,  the  third  a  disciple 
of  the  Buddha.  Each  would  then  begin*  to 
commend  the  religion  not  his  own,  and  they 
would  conclude  by  saying,  “  Religions  are 
many,  reason  is  one,  we  are  all  brothers.” 
It  was  the  maxim  of  Lu  Shun  Yang  (a  dis¬ 
tinguished  Buddhist)  centuries  ago  that  “  the 
teaching  of  the  sects  is  not  different.  The 
large-hearted  man  regards  them  as  embodying 
the  same  truths.  The  narrow-minded  man 
observes  only  their  differences.” 

Yet  another  great  religion,  the  latest  born 
among  the  higher  faiths  of  the  world,  has 
established  itself  in  both  India  and  China. 
The  first  Mohammedan  invasion  of  India  took 
place  in  a.d.  664.  The  followers  of  the 
prophet  are  now  reckoned  at  more  than 
66  millions.  In  628  Mohammed  himself  sent 
his  uncle  to  China  with  presents  to  the 
Emperor.  He  travelled  by  sea  to  Canton, 
where  the  first  mosque  was  afterwards  built. 

E  2 


68 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


Good  observers  number  the  Mohammedans  in 
China  to-day  at  30  millions,  mostly  in  the 
north  and  west ;  and  it  is  supposed  that  there 
are  about  as  many  more  in  the  Malay  Archi¬ 
pelago.  In  Africa,  especially  among  the 
negroes  of  the  west,  their  numbers  have  in¬ 
creased  enormously  in  the  last  century,  and 
some  two -fifths  of  the  multitudinous  peoples 
of  the  Dark  Continent,  80  millions  out  of 
200,  are  believed  to  live  in  the  obedience  of 
Islam.  , 

Islam,  resignation  or  submission  to  the  will 
of  God,  was  the  name  given  to  his  religion  by 
the  prophet  himself,  who  died  in  a.d.  632. 
But  in  the  hands  of  his  first  followers  sub¬ 
mission  was  no  passive  virtue.  Tradition 
ascribed  to  him  the  idea  of  addressing  all 
known  sovereigns,  and  promising  them  safety 
if  they  accepted  the  faith.  His  successors, 
therefore,  conceived  that  the  fulfilment  of 
Allah’s  will  demanded  a  resolute  effort  to 
make  known  the  new  revelation.  A  fierce 
burst  of  missionary  effort  carried  the  Moslem 
armies  far  and  wide.  In  the  year  of  Moham¬ 
med’s  death  they  attacked  Persia  and  Syria ; 
a  few  years  later  they  invaded  Egypt.  Within 
the  first  century  they  had  entered  India,  and 
had  swept  through  north  Africa  into  Spain. 
But  they  had  twice  been  obliged  to  retreat 
from  Constantinople,  and  in  732  they  were 
defeated  on  the  Loire  by  Charles  Martel  near 
Tours,  and  forced  to  retire  behind  the  Pyrenees. 

With  the  same  astonishing  energy  they 


THE  PANORAMA  OF  RELIGIONS  69 


created  centres  of  culture  from  Baghdad  to 
Cordova.  Through  Syriac  versions  of  Aris¬ 
totle’s  works  Arabian  teachers  carried  Greek 
philosophy  into  Western  Europe  when  the 
light  of  ancient  learning  had  grown  dim.  The 
contact  with  new  thought  stimulated  theologi¬ 
cal  discussion,  and  the  Moslem  had  to  justify 
himself  against  the  Christian,  the  Zoroastrian, 
the  Manichaean  and  the  Buddhist.  Above 
the  simple  ritual  demands  of  the  prophet, 
the  recital  of  the  creed — 44  There  is  no  god  but 
God  (Allah),  Mohammed  is  the  apostle  of 
God  ” — the  observance  of  prayer  five  times 
daily,  the  annual  fast  in  the  month  of  Ramad- 
han,  the  bestowal  of  alms,  and  the  pilgrimage 
to  Mecca,  arose  the  debates  of  the  schools  and 
the  divisions  of  sects.  The  nature  of  the 
divine  attributes,  and  their  relation  to  the 
being  or  essence  of  the  Deity,  the  problems  of 
predestination  and  free  will,  of  reason  and 
revelation,  excited  eager  interest.  Beside  the 
Koran  vast  numbers  of  traditions  concerning 
religious  life  and  practice  were  gradually  put 
in  circulation,  and  in  the  third  century  after 
Mohammed’s  death  they  were  reduced  to 
writing  in  six  great  collections.  To  these 
sources  of  truth  and  rules  of  conduct  the 
jurists  and  theologians  added  two  others : 
agreement  or  universal  consent,  where  beliefs 
and  practices  are  generally  received  though 
not  specially  sanctioned  by  the  Koran  or 
tradition;  and  analogy,  by  which  a  doctrine 
or  usage  may  be  accepted  as  valid  because 


70 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


of  its  resemblance  to  something  legitimated 
by  revelation. 

Like  the  higher  religions  of  India,  like 
Judaism  in  its  long  and  chequered  career 
whether  in  Palestine  or  in  the  Dispersion,  like 
the  44  universal  religions  ”  of  Buddhism  and 
Christianity,  Mohammedanism  has  known 
how  to  accommodate  itself  to  very  different 
levels  of  culture.  In  the  Arabian  deserts 
much  of  the  earlier  animism  still  remains. 
It  is  not  rudely  expelled  either  at  the  present 
day  as  Islam  advances  through  Africa.  Other 
impulses  have  worked  in  different  directions. 
There  are  religious  orders  and  mendicant 
ascetics.  There  are  mystical  schools  of  refined 
spirituality,  to  which  the  influences  of  Neo¬ 
platonism,  of  Christianity,  and  Buddhism, 
have  all  contributed.  Suflism  (as  this  type 
of  thought  is  called)  was  fed  from  various 
sources,  and  has  assumed  different  forms  in 
different  countries,  but  its  best-known  literary 
products  came  from  the  great  poets  of  Persia. 

From  that  subtle  race  issues  the  most  re¬ 
markable  movement  which  modern  Moham¬ 
medanism  has  produced.  In  1844  a  young 
man  not  twenty-five  years  of  age,  named  Ali 
Mohammed,  of  Shiraz,  appeared  under  the 
title  of  the  64  Bab  ”  or  Gate.  Disciples  gathered 
round  him,  and  the  movement  was  not  checked 
by  his  arrest,  his  imprisonment  for  nearly  six 
years,  and  his  final  execution  in  1850.  Thir¬ 
teen  years  later  one  of  his  disciples  named 
Baha-ullah,  44  Splendour  of  God,”  announced 


THE  PANORAMA  OF  RELIGIONS  71 


himself  as  “  He  whom  God  shall  manifest,” 
whose  advent  the  Bab  had  foretold.  Exiled 
to  Acre,  he  died  in  1892,  and  was  succeeded 
in  the  leadership  by  his  son  Abbas  Efendi. 
The  new  faith  declared  that  there  was  no 
finality  in  revelation,  and  while  recognising 
the  Koran  as  a  product  of  past  revelation, 
claimed  to  embody  a  new  manifestation  of 
the  divine  Unity.  Carried  to  Chicago  in 
1893  by  a  Babi  merchant,  it  succeeded  in 
establishing  itself  in  the  United  States;  and 
its  missionaries  are  winning  new  adherents 
in  India.  It,  too,  claims  to  be  a  universal 
teaching;  it  has  already  its  noble  army  of 
martyrs  and  its  holy  books;  has  Persia,  in 
the  midst  of  her  miseries,  given  birth  to  a 
religion  which  will  go  round  the  world  ? 


CHAPTER  III 

RELIGION  IN  THE  LOWER  CULTURE 

Religion  presents  itself  in  its  most  obvious 
form  as  a  mode  of  activity.  It  is  seen  in 
some  kind  of  behaviour;  it  prompts  a  parti¬ 
cular  sort  of  conduct.  Behind  the  customs 
and  rites  which  are  its  visible  sign  lie  certain 
thoughts  and  feelings,  often  dim,  indistinct, 
obscure.  In  the  totality  of  its  beliefs,  emotions, 
and  institutions,  it  is  as  much  the  product 
of  the  human  spirit  as  poetry,  or  art,  science, 
morals,  and  law.  It  will  therefore  always 
bear  some  kind  of  relation  to  the  general 
circumstances  of  the  social  development  to 
which  it  belongs.  The  interpretation  of  the 
surrounding  scene  which  is  implied  in  its 
intellectual  outlook  will  vary  with  the 
elements  of  the  scene  itself.  But  the  limits 
of  variation  are  much  smaller  than  might  be 
expected.  The  questions  “  why and  “  how  ” 
may  be  answered  very  differently  under  the 
Equator  and  within  the  Arctic  zone,  but  they 
are  the  same  questions,  and  spring  from 
common  impulses  of  thought.  Moreover, 
while  race,  climate,  and  economic  conditions 
may  all  vary,  it  happens  to  all  men  to  be  born 

72 


RELIGION  IN  LOWER  CULTURE  73 


and  to  die.  The  family  must  be  maintained, 
children  must  be  reared,  food  must  be  pro¬ 
cured,  the  tribal  group  must  preserve  its 
stability  and,  if  possible,  increase.  There  are 
universal  elements  in  human  life  all  over  the 
globe ;  and  the  manifestations  of  religion 
founded  upon  them  exhibit  in  consequence 
marked  resemblances  from  land  to  land. 

Religion  always  implies  some  kind  of  want. 
The  young  husband  wants  male  children,  the 
hunter  game,  the  warrior  victory,  the  diviner 
the  knowledge  of  secrets,  the  saint  holiness. 
The  wants  may  be  crude  or  refined,  the 
satisfaction  of  a  physical  appetite,  protection 
against  some  anticipated  danger,  the  realisa¬ 
tion  of  an  exalted  spiritual  fellowship.  But 
religion  suggests  that  there  is  some  Power 
capable  of  satisfying  these  wants,  and  under¬ 
takes  to  provide  the  means  for  setting  man 
in  proper  relations  with  it.  All  round  him  are 
the  objects  and  forces  of  the  visible  world. 
He  learns  by  degrees  that  some  help  him  to 
gratify  his  desires,  and  others  hinder  them. 
There  are  many  things  that  he  cannot  under¬ 
stand,  and  some  of  which  he  dimly  feels  that 
he  must  not  presume  to  try  :  he  is  only  con¬ 
scious  towards  them  of  a  strange  wonder  and 
awe ;  they  are  uncanny ;  he  cannot  bring 
them  into  his  experience ;  he  must  not  meddle 
with  them,  he  must  keep  away.  But  other 
things  are  more  kindly,  and  fulfil  his  hopes. 

Out  of  such  vague  consciousness  he  gradu¬ 
ally  frames  a  working  method.  Some  sort 


74 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


of  theory  is  at  length  established  after  many 
trials,  concerning  what  must  be  done  to 
obtain  what  he  seeks.  The  line  of  his  action 
is  determined  in  part  by  the  ideas  and  ex¬ 
pectations  which  have  slowly  emerged  out 
of  his  endeavours  to  get  into  fruitful  con¬ 
nection  with  the  powers  by  which  he  is 
encompassed.  This  is  the  element  of  belief, 
which  lies  behind  religion  proper,  and  supplies 
the  soil  in  which  religious  feeling  and  action 
germinate  and  grow.  What,  then,  is  the  kind 
of  belief  which,  in  the  sphere  of  the  lower 
culture,  makes  religion  possible  ? 

It  is  plain  at  once  that  no  records  remain  of 
what  is  still  sometimes  called  “  primitive 
religion.”  Even  tribes  that  seem  to  be  living 
in  the  Stone  Age  have  as  long  a  past  behind 
them  as  any  European  of  light  and  leading. 
Whatever  the  beliefs  may  be  that  belong  to 
any  given  stage  of  social  culture,  they  are 
not  new  inventions,  they  depend  on  im¬ 
memorial  tradition.  And  they  are  not,  as 
now  cherished,  the  results  of  individual 
research  or  reflection.  They  are  held  in 
common  by  all  the  members  of  the  tribe,  so 
that  they  have  a  kind  of  collective  force. 
No  doubt  in  the  long  process  of  their  forma¬ 
tion  and  transmission  modifications  may  have 
been  introduced,  as  some  elder,  shrewder 
than  his  fellows,  gave  new  emphasis  to  some 
leading  idea,  or  suggested  the  adoption  of 
some  fresh  action.  Trace  them  back  into 
the  dim  realm  of  conjecture,  and  some  mind 


RELIGION  IN  LOWER  CULTURE  75 


a  little  more  observant  or  ready  than  his 
comrades  must  have  started  the  first  explana¬ 
tion,  some  will  a  little  more  adventurous  must 
have  made  the  first  experiments  in  conduct. 
Thoughts  do  not  issue  from  a  “  collective 
consciousness  ” ;  they  bear  the  stamp  of 
personality,  they  are  not  begotten  by  ab¬ 
stractions,  and  every  fresh  development  starts 
from  a  single  brain.  But  the  uniformity  of 
experience  within  the  group  gives  enormous 
■weight  to  the  wisdom  of  the  past ;  and  con¬ 
stitutes  a  sanction  which  only  some  grave 
shock  can  change  or  overthrow. 

With  religion  is  constantly  associated,  both 
in  historical  record  and  in  the  lower  forms  of 
present-day  practice,  another  kind  of  activity 
known  as  Magic.  The  relation  between  them 
has  been  variously  interpreted.  The  modern 
anthropologist,  Dr.  Frazer,  finds  himself  in 
unexpected  agreement  with  the  philosopher 
Hegel  in  supposing  that  magic  was  the  first 
to  appear  upon  the  scene.  It  is  represented 
as  a  kind  of  primitive  science,  founded  on 
certain  elementary  axioms,  such  as  that  “  like 
produces  like,”  or  that  things  once  in  contact 
with  each  other  will  continue  to  act  upon 
each  other  when  the  contact  is  broken.  The 
Central  Australian  performs  elaborate  cere¬ 
monies  to  stimulate  the  multiplication  of 
the  totem  which  provides  the  supply  of  food 
for  his  tribe.  Suppose  it  is  the  witchetty 
grub.  A  kind  of  pantomime  is  performed 
representing  the  emergence  of  the  fully- 


76 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


developed  insect  out  of  the  chrysalis,  typified 
by  a  long,  narrow  structure  made  of  boughs. 
The  totem  men  sit  inside  and  chant  rude 
songs,  and  then  crawl  out  singing  of  the 
insect  coming  forth. 

One  of  the  commonest  illustrations  is  the 
attempt  to  compass  the  death  of  an  enemy 
by  injuring  or  destroying  an  image  or  figure 
supposed  to  correspond  to  him.  Such  images 
were  made  in  -ancient  Babylonia,  Egypt, 
Greece,  and  Rome.  One  North  American 
Indian  will  draw  a  figure  of  his  adversary  in 
the  sand,  or  in  ashes,  and  prick  it  with  a  sharp 
stick.  Another  will  make  a  wooden  image, 
and  insert  a  needle  into  the  head  or  the  heart. 
Clay  is  used  for  the  purpose  by  the  African 
Matabele,  wax  in  Arabia,  the  guelder  rose  in 
Japan,  materials  of  all  kinds  in  India.  In 
Scotland  the  corp  chre ,  as  it  was  called,  was 
a  clay  body,  which  was  stuck  full  of  pins, 
nails,  and  broken  bits  of  glass,  and  set  in  a 
running  stream  with  its  head  to  the  current ; 
a  modern  specimen  from  Inverness-shire  may 
be  seen  in  the  Pitt  Rivers  Museum  in  Oxford. 
Is  all  this  really  as  Dr.  Frazer  supposes,  prior 
to  the  birth  of  religion,  and  does  man  only 
turn  to  the  propitiation  of  superior  powers 
when  he  cannot  get  what  he  wants  through 
magic  ?  Of  that  process  no  evidence  can 
be  offered. 

The  essence  of  magic  lies  in  some  kind  of 
compulsion  or  constraint.  Through  the  proper 
spell,  or  through  the  will  of  the  magician, 


RELIGION  IN  LOWER  CULTURE  77 


a  control  is  exerted  which  produces  the  de¬ 
sired  result.  The  power  which  is  thus  claimed 
implies  an  attitude  wholly  unlike  that  of 
religion.  Into  that  attitude  there  enter 
elements  of  wonder  and  submission  in  the 
presence  of  energies  which  man  cannot 
master,  though  he  desires  to  get  them  on  his 
side.  Rut  no  observer  was  at  hand  to  watch 
the  first  processes  of  feeling  and  thought 
which  the  interaction  of  man  and  his  environ¬ 
ment  produced.  The  crudest  forms  of  religion 
which  we  actually  know,  meet  us  iri  tribes 
which  have  possessed  them  from  an  unknown 
past.  Here  religion  has  a  social  character 
binding  the  members  of  a  group  together, 
and  tending  to  maintain  certain  uniformities 
of  conduct  and  character.  Over  against  it 
stands  the  antisocial  character  of  magic,  at 
any  rate  when  directed  against  individuals. 
Along  this  line  it  is  urged  that  magic  and 
religion  have  both  issued  out  of  common 
conditions.  In  the  world  around  all  sorts 
of  events  are  continually  happening.  Man, 
in  the  midst  of  them,  moves  to  and  fro  im¬ 
pulsively  among  various  objects  and  agencies. 
Out  of  these  arise  various  reactions  for  self¬ 
maintenance,  for  protection  and  defence. 
Certain  acts  tend  to  establish  themselves  as 
successful ;  they  make  for  security  and  welfare. 
At  first  man’s  efforts  have  no  definite 
direction ;  but  some  are  found  effective,  others 
are  futile,  and  attention  is  concentrated  on 
those  that  produce  satisfactory  results.  After 


78 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


many  trials  certain  beliefs,  certain  processes, 
certain  persons,  gradually  stand  out  above  the 
rest,  and  through  them  relations  of  advantage 
are  established  with  the  environing  powers. 

In  such  experiences  lie  the  roots  of  both 
religion  and  magic.  In  their  earliest  forms 
they  may  be  as  difficult  to  discriminate  as 
the  simplest  types  of  animal  and  vegetable 
life.  If  it  be  asked  what  distinguishes  them 
outwardly,  when  both  are  transmitted  by 
tradition,  both  rest  upon  custom,  it  may  be 
answered  that  religion  is  concerned  with 
what  tends  to  the  stability  of  the  community. 
Its  interests  are  those  of  the  group.  It 
supplies  the  bond  of  united  action  for  clan 
or  tribe  or  people.  It  is  pre-eminently 
social ;  it  expresses  itself  in  ceremonies, 
feasts,  and  rites  in  which  all  can  join,  or  in 
commands  which  all  can  obey.  Even  the 
Australians,  so  poor  in  elements  of  worship, 
have  tribal  laws  which  have  been  imparted 
to  them  from  on  high  (Chap.  VII). 

Over  against  the  community  stands  the 
individual,  object  of  all  kinds  of  jealousies 
and  enmities.  All  sorts  of  antisocial  arts  may 
be  practised  for  his  destruction.  The  pointing- 
stick  of  Australia  provides  a  common  magical 
weapon.  It  is  carried  away  into  a  lonely  spot 
in  the  bush,  and  the  intending  user  plants  it 
in  the  ground,  crouches  down  over  it,  and 
mutters  a  curse  against  the  object  of  his 
hatred  :  “  May  your  heart  be  rent  asunder, 
may  your  backbone  be  split  open  !  ”  Then 


RELIGION  IN  LOWER  CULTURE  79 


one  evening,  as  the  men  sit  round  the  camp¬ 
fire  in  the  dark,  he  creeps  up  stealthily 
behind  his  enemy,  stoops  down  with  his  back 
to  the  camp,  points  the  stick  over  his  shoulder, 
and  mutters  the  curse  again.  A  little  while 
after,  unless  saved  by  a  more  powerful  magic, 
the  victim  sickens  and  dies. 

Of  course  magic  may  also  be  used  for  the 
benefit  of  the  individual,  and  the  practice 
of  exorcism  for  the  cure  of  diseases  caused 
through  possession  by  evil  spirits  long  found 
shelter  in  some  branches  of  the  Christian 
Church.  The  kinship  between  Magic  and 
Religion  is  clearly  marked  when  the  priest 
takes  the  place  of  the  devil-dancer  or  the 
medicine  man.  Yet  they  are  on  different 
planes ;  religion  is  prescribed  and  official,  and 
demands  specific  services ;  magic  falls  into 
the  background,,  it  becomes  a  secret,  perhaps 
a  forbidden,  art.  Nevertheless,  between 
religion  and  antisocial  magic  lies  a  large 
group  of  rites,  essentially  magical  in  character, 
like  the  North  American  Indian  rain-dances 
or  the  totem-ceremonies  of  the  Arunta  in 
Central  Australia,  designed  for  the  general 
welfare.  Even  in  much  higher  cultures  the 
spell  frequently  mingles  with  the  prayer,  and 
ceremonies  of  sacrifice  carry  with  them 
elements  of  compulsion  or  constraint. 

What  traces,  then,  do  the  phases  of  religion 
in  the  lower  culture  exhibit  of  a  view  of  the 
world  and  its  powers  out  of  which  these 
diverging  lines  of  practice  might  emerge  ? 


80  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


In  widely  different  regions  of  the  globe  the 
forces  that  operate  in  unexpected  ways,  or 
play  through  things  beyond  man’s  reach,  or 
appear  in  natural  objects  of  striking  character 
— an  animal,  a  tree — are  summed  up  in  some 
general  term  of  mystery  and  awe.  Such  is 
the  Melanesian  term  mana ,  first  noted  by 
Bishop  Codrington,  common  to  a  large  group 
of  languages.  It  implies  some  supersensual 
power  or  influence ;  it  is  not  itself  personal, 
though  it  may  dwell  in  persons  as  in  things. 
It  is  known  by  the  results  which  reveal  its 
working.  You  find  a  stone  of  an  unusual 
shape ;  it  may  resemble  some  familiar  object 
like  a  fruit ;  you  lay  it  at  the  root  of  the 
corresponding  tree,  or  you  bury  it  in  a  yam- 
patch  ;  an  abundant  crop  follows ;  clearly, 
the  stone  has  mana.  It  lives  in  the  song-words 
of  a  spell ;  it  secures  success  in  fighting, 
perhaps  through  the  tooth  of  some  fierce  and 
powerful  animal ;  it  imparts  speed  to  the 
canoe,  brings  fish  into  the  net,  enables  the 
arrow  to  inflict  a  mortal  wound.  But  the 
word  has  a  yet  wider  range,  in  the  sense  of 
power,  might,  influence.  By  it  a  parent 
can  bring  a  curse  on  a  disobedient  child,  a 
man  who  possesses  it  can  work  miracles ;  it 
even  denotes  the  divinity  of  the  gods.  And 
so  mysterious  is  the  whole  range  of  the  inner 
life,  that  mana  covers  thought,  desire,  feeling, 
and  affection;  and  in  Hawaian  it  reaches  out 
to  spirit,  energy  of  character,  majesty.  Here 
is  an  immense  reserve  of  potency  pervading 


RELIGION  IN  LOWER  CULTURE  81 


the  world,  on  which  man  may  draw  for  good 
or  ill. 

Among  the  North  American  Indians  similar 
conceptions  may  be  traced.  The  Algonquin 
manitou  represents  a  subtle  property  believed 
to  exist  everywhere  in  nature,  though  some 
persons  and  objects  possess  more  of  it  than 
others.  Among  the  Sioux  the  sun,  the  moon, 
the  stars,  thunder,  wind,  are  all  wakanda. 
So  are  certain  trees  and  animals,  the  cedar, 
the  snake,  the  grey  elephant ;  and  mystery- 
places  like  a  particular  lake  in  North  Dakota, 
or  some  peculiar  rocks  on  the  Yellowstone 
River.  The  term  carries  with  it  power  and 
sacredness ;  it  belongs  to  what  is  ancient, 
grand,  and  animate.  The  Iroquoian  tribes 
designate  this  mysterious  force  orenda.  It 
expresses  an  incalculable  energy,  manifested  in 
rocks  and  streams  and  tides;  in  plants  and 
trees,  in  animals  and  man;  it  belongs  to  the 
earth  and  its  mountains ;  it  breathes  in  the 
winds  and  is  heard  in  the  thunder ;  the  clouds 
move  by  it,  day  and  night  follow  each  other 
through  it;  it  dwells  in  sun,  moon,  and  stars. 
The  shy  bird) or  quadruped  which  it  is  difficult 
to  snare  or  kill,  possesses  it ;  so  does  the  skilful 
hunter;  it  gives  victory  in  intertribal  games 
of  skill,  and  is  the  secret  force  of  endurance  or 
speed  of  foot.  The  prophet  or  the  soothsayer 
discloses  the  future  by  its  aid ;  and  whatever  is 
believed  to  have  been  instrumental  in  accom¬ 
plishing  some  purpose  or  obtaining  some  good, 
finds  in  orenda  the  source  of  its  effectiveness. 

F 


82  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


Not  dissimilar  is  the  conception  of  mulungu 
among  the  Yaos,  east  of  Lake  Nyassa.  The 
term  is  wide-spread  through  the  eastern 
group  of  Bantu  tongues,  and  is  said  to  have 
the  meaning  of  44  Old  One  ”  or  44  Great  One  ” ; 
and  in  this  sense  it  has  been  employed  as 
equivalent  to  God.  But  we  are  expressly 
told  that  in  its  native  use  and  form  it  does 
not  imply  personality.  Etymologically  it 
ranks  with  the  leg,  arm,  heart,  head,  of  the 
human  frame.  Yet  it  denotes  rather  a  state 
or  property  inhering  in  something,  like  life 
or  health  in  the  body,  than  any  single  object. 
It  indicates  a  kind  of  supernormal  energy, 
displayed  in  actual  experience,  but  not  to  be 
detected  by  any  physical  sense.  It  is  the 
agent  of  wonder  and  mystery;  the  rainbow 
is  mulungu ;  and  it  sums  up  at  once  the 
creative  energy  which  made  the  earth  and 
animals  and  man,  and  the  powers  which 
operate  in  human  life.  At  the  foot  of  a  tree 
in  the  village  courtyard,  where  men  sit  and 
talk,  a  small  offering  of  flour  or  beer  is  placed 
on  any  distinctive  occasion  in  the  communal 
life ;  at  a  meal,  or  on  a  journey  at  cross  roads, 
a  little  flour  is  set  aside.  It  is  44  for  Mulungu  ” ; 
sometimes  dimly  conceived  as  a  spirit  within ; 
sometimes  regarded  as  a  universal  agency  in 
nature  and  affairs,  impalpable,  impersonal; 
sometimes  rising  into  distinctness  as  God. 

Such  terms  are,  of  course,  generalisations 
from  many  separate  experiences.  Out  of  this 
sense  of  mystery  grow  more  definite  ideas. 


RELIGION  IN  LOWER  CULTURE  83 


The  dark  and  solemn  forest,  the  rushing 
river,  the  precipitous  rock,  the  lofty  cloud- 
crowned  mountain,  the  winds  and  storms,  all 
manifest  a  common  power;1  it  lives  in  the 
snake  or  the  bull,  in  the  tiger  or  the  bear. 
This  may  be  conceived  in  a  highly  complex 
and  abstract  form.  Thus  the  Zunis  of 
Mexico,  we  are  told,  suppose  the  sun  and 
moon,  the  stars,  the  sky,  the  earth  and  sea, 
with  all  their  various  changes,  and  all  in¬ 
animate  objects,  as  well  as  plants,  animals, 
and  men,  to  belong  to  one  great  system  of 
all -conscious  and  interrelated  life.  One  term 
includes  them  all :  htii ,  “  being  ”  or  44  life.” 
With  the  prefix  h ,  44  all,”  the  whole  field  of 
nature  is  summed  up  as  ahai ,  44  life  ”  or 
44  the  Beings.”  This  comprehensive  term 
includes  the  objects  of  sensible  experience 
regarded  as  personal  existences,  and  super- 
sensual  beings  who  are  known  as  4 4  Finishers 
or  Makers  of  the  paths  of  life,”  the  most 
exalted  of  all  being  designated  44  the  Holder 
of  the  paths  of  our  lives.”  So  in  Annam  life 
is  regarded  as  a  universal  phenomenon.  It 
belongs  not  only  to  men  and  animals  and 
plants,  but  to  stones  and  stars,  to  earth, 
fire,  and  wind.  But  it  is  seen  in  groups 
and  kinds  rather  than  individuals,  and  the 
limits  of  its  forms  are  not  sharply  drawn; 
it  can  pass  through  many  transformations, 
and  possesses  indefinite  possibilities  of  change. 

1  M.  Durkheim  has  recently  applied  conceptions  of  the 
mana  order  to  the  explanation  of  totemism. 


84  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 

Such  conceptions  have  a  long  history  behind 
them. 

The  poets  of  the  ancient  Vedic  hymns 
beheld  everything  around  them  full  of  energy. 
The  names  by  which  they  designated  what 
they  saw  all  denoted  action  or  agency.  The 
swift  flow  of  the  stream  gained  it  the  title  of 
the  44  runner  ” ;  as  it  cut  away  the  banks  or 
furrowed  its  course  deep  between  the  rocks, 
it  was  the  44  plougher  ” ;  when  it  nourished 
the  fields  it  was  the  44  mother 55 ;  when  it 
marked  off  one  territory  from  another  it  was 
the  44  defender  ”  or  44  protector.”  So  the 
seers  addressed  their  invocations  to  the  dawn 
or  the  sun,  to  the  winds  and  the  fire,  to  the 
river  or  the  mountain,  to  the  earth-mother 
or  the  sky-father,  as  living  powers,  capable  of 
responding  to  the  prayers  of  their  worshippers. 
Similar  energy  dwelt  in  the  horse  or  the  cow, 
the  bird  of  omen  and  the  guardian  dog.  It 
was  even  shared  by  ritual  implements  such 
as  the  stones  by  which  the  sacred  soma- 
juice  was  squeezed  out,  or  by  the  products  of 
human  handiwork,  the  war-car,  the  weapon, 
the  drum,  and  the  peaceful  plough. 

At  the  present  day  the  Batak  in  the  north¬ 
west  of  Sumatra  interpret  the  world  about 
them  in  terms  of  a  soul-stuff  or  life-power 
called  tondi.  A  vast  reservoir  of  this  exists 
in  the  world  above,  and  flows  down  upommen 
and  animals  and  plants.  The  biggest  animal, 
like  the  tiger,  the  most  important  of  plants, 
like  rice  (chief  source  of  food),  have  most 


RELIGION  IN  LOWER  CULTURE  85 


tondi,  but  it  is  not  confined  to  living  things; 
the  smith  attributes  it  to  his  iron,  the  fisher¬ 
man  to  his  boat,  the  tiller  of  the  ground  to 
his  hoe,  the  householder  to  his  hearth  and 
home.  But  a  further  analysis  is  beginning. 
What  is  the  relation  of  a  man’s  tondi  to  him¬ 
self  ?  When  he  dies,  it  passes  into  some 
fresh  organism.  But  the  rest  of  him,  his 
shadow,  his  double,  or  his  self,  becomes  a 
begu .  In  life,  it  is  the  body  that  thinks  and 
feels,  that  fears  and  hopes  and  wills,  though 
the  presence  of  the  tondi  supplies  the  needful 
energy.  But  the  tondi  also  has  the  functions 
of  consciousness,  for  it  can  go  away  in  dreams 
and  meet  the  begus  of  parents  and  ancestors. 
And  the  apprehension  that  it  may  depart 
begets  reverence  and  even  offerings  to  the 
tondi ,  rather  than  to  distant  gods  for  whom 
man  can  feel  neither  fear  nor  love. 

We  touch  here  another  root  of  religious 
belief,  which  produces  growths  so  wide- 
spreading  that  some  interpreters  bring  the 
whole  range  of  objects  of  worship  within  their 
shade.  How,  after  all,  does  man  explain 
himself  to  himself  ?  At  first  he  does  not 
think  about  thinking.  Such  words  as  he  uses 
are  vague  and  elastic,  like  the  Polynesian 
mana ,  which  covers  a  multitude  of  facts 
without  and  within.  Only  through  long 
dim  processes  does  any  idea  corresponding 
to  our  conception  of  personality  come  into 
his  consciousness.  He  is  as  confused  about 
the  objects  round  him  as  he  is  about  himself. 


86  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


Yet  he  has  some  sort  of  initiative.  Whence 
comes  it  ?  Little  by  little  a  variety  of 
experiences  force  on  him  the  belief  that  beside 
the  body  and  its  limbs  he  possesses  something 
which  he  cannot  ordinarily  see,  but  which  is 
essential  to  his  activity.  He  falls  asleep,  and 
lies  still  upon  the  ground;  he  wakes,  full  of 
remembrance  of  adventure,  the  localities 
which  he  has  visited,  the  animals  that  he  has 
hunted,  the  dead  kinsmen  whom  he  has  met. 
The  Australians  explain  their  dreams  by  the 
supposition  that  the  yambo ,  the  mump ,  or 
the  boolabong ,  can  quit  the  body  and  return. 
“  I  asked  one  of  the  Kurnai  ”  (of  Gippsland), 
relates  Mr.  Howitt,  “  whether  he  really 
thought  his  yambo  could  go  out  during  sleep.” 
“  It  must  be  so,”  was  the  answer,  44  for  when 
I  sleep,  I  go  to  distant  places,  I  see  distant 
people,  I  even  see  and  speak  with  those  that 
are  dead.”  The  great  apostle  of  the  East  in 
the  sixteenth  century,  the  devoted  Francis 
Xavier,  wrote  home  from  India  to  the  Society 
of  Jesus  in  Europe — 

“  I  find  that  the  arguments  which  are  to 
convince  these  ignorant  people  must  be  by 
no  means  subtle,  such  as  those  which  are 
found  in  the  books  of  learned /schoolmen,  but 
such  as  their  minds  can  understand.  They 
asked  me  again  and  again  how  the  soul  of 
a  dying  person  goes  out  of  the  body,  how  it 
was,  whether  it  was  as  happens  to  us  in  dreams, 
when  we  seem  to  be  conversing  with  our 


RELIGION  IN  LOWER  CULTURE  87 


friends  and  acquaintances.  Ah,  how  often 
this  happens  to  me,  dearest  brethren,  when 
I  dream  of  you  !  Was  this  because  the  soul 
then  leaves  the  body  ?  55 

This  explanation  is  found  all  round  the 
globe. 

Many  other  experiences  confirm  the  im¬ 
pression  of  some  kind  of  dual  existence. 
The  shadow  or  shade  which  follows  a  man 
repeats  his  movements,  and  appears  as  a  sort 
of  double.  It  is  even  widely  believed  in  the 
face  of  the  simplest  evidence  that  a  dead 
body  casts  no  shadow  (of  course,  as  it  lies 
upon  the  ground  the  shadow  may  almost 
disappear).  Your  reflection  in  river,  pool, 
or  lake,  actually  reproduces  your  colour  as 
well  as  your  form  :  beware  lest  a  crocodile 
seizes  it  and  drags  you  in.  From  ancient 
times  down  to  Shelley  and  Walt  Whitman, 
poetry  has  designated  Sleep  and  Death  as 
66  brothers  ” ;  in  death  that  which  was  tempo¬ 
rarily  absent  in  sleep  has  gone  away  for  good. 
It  may  have  rushed  out  with  the  blood  from 
a  gaping  wound ;  it  may  have  quietly  departed 
with  the  last  faint  breath.  So  it  may  be 
summoned  back,  as  in  Chinese  custom,  on 
the  housetop,  in  the  garden  or  the  field. 
Ghostly  sounds  may  be  heard  in  the  forest, 
among  the  rocks,  borne  along  the  wind;  the 
clairvoyant  may  discern  dimly  strange  faces, 
vanished  forms  the  dead  can  sometimes 
make  themselves  seen  in  their  old  haunts; 


88 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


the  world  is  full  of  unexpected  indications 
of  presences  beyond  our  sense. 

Such  presences  are  grouped,  for  the  modern 
student,  under  the  general  title  “  spirits.” 
But  the  explanations  which  lead  to  these 
beliefs  are  not  concerned  with  human  beings 
only.  Animals  share  in  the  incidents  of  life 
and  death;  plants,  even,  grow  and  blossom 
and  decay ;  and  animals,  plants,  and  in¬ 
animate  objects  of  all  sorts  may  be  seen  in 
dreams.  Hence  the  analysis  which  is  applied 
to  man  can  be  readily  extended ;  and  another 
world  is  called  into  existence,  strangely 
blended  with  this,  a  realm  of  immaterial 
counterparts  and  impalpable  forces.  A  Fiji 
native,  placed  before  a  mirror,  recognising 
himself  and  object  after  object,  whispered 
softly,  “  Now  I  can  see  into  the  world  of 
spirits.” 

With  the  help  of  this  elementary  philosophy 
a  vast  machinery  of  causation  is  always  at 
hand  for  explaining  untoward  events.  The 
Tshi -speaking  negro  on  the  West  Coast  of 
Africa  has  inside  him  a  kind  of  life -power 
named  kra.  It  existed  long  before  his  birth, 
for  it  served  in  the  same  capacity  a  whole 
series  of  predecessors;  and  it  will  continue 
its  career  after  his  death,  when  the  man  him¬ 
self  becomes  a  srahman  or  ghost.  The  adjoin¬ 
ing  Ga-speaking  tribes  modify  the  kra  into 
two  kla,  one  male  and  one  female,  the  first 
of  a  bad  disposition,  the  second  good,  who 
give  advice  and  prompt  to  actions  according 


RELIGION  IN  LOWER  CULTURE  89 


to  their  respective  characters.  Yet  a  third 
inmate  dwells  in  the  neighbouring  Yoruba- 
speaking  folk,  one  in  the  head,  one  in  the 
stomach,  and  one  in  the  great  toe.  Offerings 
are  made  to  the  first  by  rubbing  fowl’s  blood 
and  palm  oil  on  the  forehead.  The  second 
needs  none,  for  it  shares  whatever  the  stomach 
receives.  The  third  is  propitiated  as  an 
agent  of  locomotion  before  starting  on  a 
journey.  But  the  curious  theme  of  the 
plurality  of  souls  must  not  beguile  us. 

Meantime  the  original  kra  is  set  behind  all 
the  activities  of  nature,  and  extended  to  the 
whole  sphere  of  material  objects.  Each  town 
or  village  or  district  has  its  own  local  spirits, 
rulers  of  river  and  valley,  rock  and  forest  and 
hill.  Sometimes  they  take  human  shape,  and 
colour,  white  or  black,  for  transformations 
of  all  kinds  are  always  possible.  They  are 
not  all  of  equal  rank;  the  broad  lake,  the 
mountain,  the  sea  where  the  surf  breaks 
heavily  and  the  frail  craft  are  upset — the 
lightning,  the  storm,  and  the  earthquake — 
the  leopard,  the  crocodile,  the  shark,  and  the 
devastating  smallpox — such  are  among  the 
dreaded  manifestations  of  these  dangerous 
and  mysterious  powers.  But  the  actual  dead 
must  not  be  forgotten ;  they  must  be  provided 
with  ghostly  counterparts  of  food  and  weapons 
and  utensils,  with  cloth  and  gold-dust,  just 
as  a  departed  chief  must  be  accompanied  into 
the  next  life  by  the  wives  and  slaves  who 
adorned  his  household  state  in  this. 


90 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


The  ritual  of  the  dead  belongs,  as  we  have 
seen  (p.  20),  to  the  earliest- known  activities 
of  European  man.  It  is  found  in  some  form 
or  other  in  every  country  under  the  sun. 
Sometimes  it  is  prompted  by  fear,  and  has 
for  its  object  to  keep  the  dead  imprisoned 
in  the  grave,  or  to  prevent  their  spirits 
from  returning  to  their  old  haunts  (p.  228). 
Sometimes  it  is  warmed  by  affection,  as  the 
departed  are  recalled  to  the  homes  where 
they  were  loved.  In  ancient  Egypt  it  was 
developed  with  the  utmost  elaboration,  and 
created  a  literature  describing  a  kind  of 
46  pilgrim’s  progress  ”  through  the  scenes  of 
the  next  world  (p.  237);  while  in  Greece 
and  Rome  the  cultus  of  the  dead  acquired, 
as  in  India  and  China,  immense  social  signifi¬ 
cance.  The  question  that  arises  in  the  study 
of  religion  in  the  lower  culture  is  concerned 
with  the  probable  connection  between  the 
two  groups  of  spirits,  which  may  be  broadly 
distinguished  as  spirits  of  nature  and  spirits 
of  the  dead.  That  the  latter  are  constantly 
propitiated  in  various  forms  is  well  known. 
They  are  to  be  found  everywhere,  lurking  in 
the  trees,  flying  through  the  air,  sojourning 
in  caves,  haunting  the  promontories  on  the 
rivers  or  hidden  in  the  forest -depths.  With 
them  lie  the  causes  of  disease  and  madness; 
they  are  malevolent  and  hurtful,  as  well  as 
kindly  and  good.  What  differences  are  to 
be  discerned  between  them  and  the  powers 
of  nature  ?  Are  we  to  suppose,  with  some 


RELIGION  IN  LOWER  CULTURE  91 


students,  that  all  the  higher  forms  of  religion 
have  been  developed  out  of  the  worship 
of  the  dead,  and  that  for  gods  we  must 
everywhere  read  originally  ghosts  ? 

Consider,  for  example,  the  ancient  religion 
of  Japan,  which  we  know  by  an  adaptation 
of  two  Chinese  words  as  Shin-To,  the  44  spirits’ 
way,”  or  in  its  native  form  kami-no-michi.1 
Who  are  the  kami,  or  44  spirits  ”  ?  The  title 
of  4 4  religion  ”  has  sometimes  been  denied  to 
their  cultus  on  the  ground  that  it  contains 
44  no  set  of  dogmas,  no  sacred  book,  and  no 
moral  code.”  Greece  and  Rome  might,  on 
the  same  plea,  be  described  as  having  no 
religion.  The  term  kami  has  for  its  root-idea 
the  significance  of  44  that  which  is  above.”  It 
may  be  applied  in  the  widest  range  of  relations 
from  the  hair  which  is  on  the  top  of  the  head 
to  the  government  which  rules  the  people. 
The  kami  are,  as  it  were,  the  44  highnesses  ” ; 
the  word  is  used  of  big  things  by  land  and  sea, 
great  rivers,  mighty  mountains,  roaring  winds 
and  rolling  thunder ;  then  of  rocks  and  trees, 
of  animals  like  the  tiger  and  the  wolf,  of 
metals,  and  so  of  innumerable  objects  in 
earth  and  sky.  It  is  not  always  clear  whether 
these  were  originally  conceived  as  themselves 
living,  or  whether  they  had  been  resolved  into 
material  body  and  controlling  spirit.  The 

1  Chinese  culture  has  probably  exerted  considerable 
influence  on  the  exponents  of  the  Shinto  revival  in  the 
eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries.  Very  different 
aspects  are  reflected  in  the  ancient  chronicles* 


92 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


functions  of  the  kami ,  however,  are  extended 
and  distributed  by  a  kind  of  fission ;  the  kami 
of  food  split  into  the  produce  of  trees  and  the 
parent  of  grasses ;  they  preside  over  guilds 
and  crafts,  the  weavers,  the  potters,  the 
carpenters,  the  swordsmen,  the  boatbuilders ; 
they  guide  the  operations  of  agriculture ; 
they  superintend  the  household,  and  watch 
over  the  kitchen  range,  the  saucepan,  the 
ricepot,  the  well,  the  pond,  the  garden,  and 
the  scarecrow. 

But  in  this  vast  assembly  are  included  also 
the  spirits  of  the  dead.  They  likewise  become 
kami  of  varying  rank  and  power.  Some  dwell 
in  temples  built  in  their  honour;  some  hover 
near  their  tombs;  some  are  kindly,  and  some 
malevolent.  They  mingle  in  the  immense 
multiplicity  of  agencies  which  makes  every 
event  in  the  universe,  in  the  language  of  the 
Shinto  writer  Motowori  (1730-1801),  “the 
act  of  the  Kami.”  They  direct  the  changing 
seasons,  the  wind  and  the  rain;  and  the  good 
and  bad  fortunes  of  individuals,  families,  and 
States,  are  due  to  them.  From  birth  to 
death  the  entire  life  of  man  is  encompassed 
and  guided  by  the  Kami. 

Hence  came  the  duty  of  worship  on  which 
Hirata  (1776-1843)  lays  great  stress.  The 
heaven-descended  Ninigi,  progenitor  of  the 
imperial  line,  was  taught  by  his  divine  fore¬ 
fathers  that  “  everything  in  the  world  depends 
on  the  spirits  of  the  kami  of  heaven  and  earth, 
and  therefore  the  worship  of  the  kami  is  a 


RELIGION  IN  LOWER  CULTURE  93 


matter  of  primary  importance.  The  kami 
who  do  harm  are  to  be  appeased,  so  that  they 
may  not  punish  those  who  have  offended 
them ;  and  all  the  kami  are  to  be  worshipped 
so  that  they  may  be  induced  to  increase 
their  favours.”  Accordingly  Hirata’s  morning 
prayer  before  the  kami-dana,  the  wooden  shelf 
fixed  against  the  wall  in  a  Shinto  home  about 
six  feet  from  the  floor,  bearing  a  small  model  of 
a  temple  or  “august  spirit -house,”  ran  thus — 

“  Reverently  adoring  the  great  God  of  the 
two  palaces  of  Ise  (the  Sun-goddess)  in  the 
first  place,  the  800  myriads  of  celestial  kami , 
the  800  myriads  of  ancestral  kami ,  all  the 
1500  myriads  to  whom  are  consecrated  the 
great  and  small  temples  in  all  provinces,  all 
islands  and  all  places  in  the  great  land  of 
8  islands,  the  1500  myriads  of  kami  whom 
they  cause  to  serve  them.  ...  I  pray  with 
awe  that  they  will  deign  to  correct  the  un¬ 
witting  faults  which,  heard  and  seen  by  them, 
I  have  committed,  and,  blessing  and  favour¬ 
ing  me  according  to  the  powers  which  they 
severally  wield,  cause  me  to  follow  the  divine 
example,  and  to  perform  good  works  in  the 
way.” 

Here,  the  spirits  of  the  dead  are  blended  with 
those  of  nature,  without  any  definite;  attempt 
to  assign  them  to  different  ranks  or  functions. 
Among  the  dead  themselves  there  are  such 
distinctions,  which  do  not,  however,  concern 
us  here ;  there  are  “  spirits  of  crookedness,” 


94  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


and  there  are  spirits  of  the  clans  and  of  the 
imperial  line.  But  above  the  multitudinous 
groups  of  nameless  kami ,  whether  once  human 
or  attached  to  the  physical  scene,  rise  certain 
great  powers  which  it  seems  very  difficult 
to  identify  with  departed  ghosts.  The  earliest 
traditions  of  the  divine  evolution  in  the 
ancient  chronicles  contain  no  hint  pointing  in 
that  direction;  and  the  comparison  of  the 
Japanese  deities  of  earth,  fire,  wind,  sea,  and 
similar  great  elemental  forces  elsewhere,  is 
not  favourable  to  their  derivation  from  the 
hosts  of  the  dead. 

The  student  of  the  hymns  to  Fire  in  the 
Rig- Veda  (Agni  =  Latin  ignis)  cannot  fail 
to  notice  the  emphasis  laid  upon  the  birth 
of  the  god  out  of  the  wood,  as  the  fire-drill 
kindles  the  first  sparks,  and  the  flame  leaps 
forth.  Here  is  something  quick-moving, 
vital ;  the  fire  is  the  god ;  he  may  rise  into 
cosmic  significance  as  a  pervading  energy 
sustaining  the  whole  world ;  but  he  never  loses 
his  physical  character,  any  more  than  the 
solid  earth  or  the  encompassing  sky.  These 
are  again  and  again  the  chief  co-ordinating 
powers  of  the  higher  animism.  Their  separa¬ 
tion  out  of  the  primeval  mass  of  obscure  and 
indiscriminate  chaos  has  been  the  theme  of 
myth  from  Egypt  to  New  Zealand ;  just  as 
their  “  bridal  ”  has  served  to  express  the 
union  and  co-operation  of  the  forces  of  nature 
all  around  the  world. 

Of  this  the  ancient  Chinese  religion,  still  the 


RELIGION  IN  LOWER  CULTURE  95 


formal  basis  of  the  national  worship  as  per¬ 
formed  by  the  Emperor,  supplies  perhaps 
the  best  example.  The  cultus  of  the  dead 
is  practised  in  every  home,  and  around  the 
incidents  of  life  and  death  have  gathered 
various  Buddhist  and  Taoist  rites.  Moreover, 
a  rampant  demonology  environs  the  entire 
field  of  existence;  but  this  disordered  multi¬ 
tude  of  noxious  spirits  has  no  recognition 
in  the  imperial  homage.  From  immemorial 
generations  the  Chinese  practice  made  religion 
a  department  of  the  State,  and  the  venerable 
book  of  the  Rites  of  the  great  dynasty  of 
Chow  requires  the  Grand  Superior  of  Sacrifices 
to  superintend  the  worship  due  to  three 
orders  of' Shin  or  spirits,  celestial,  terrestrial, 
and  human.  Under  the  sovereignty  of  the 
sky  the  first  includes  the  spirits  of  the  sun, 
moon,  stars,  clouds,  wind,  rain,  thunder,  and 
the  changes  of  the  atmosphere.  In  the  sphere 
of  earth  are  reckoned  the  spirits  of  the 
mountains,  rivers,  plains,  seas,  lakes,  woods, 
fields,  and.  grains. 

Taken  together  Heaven  and  Earth  thus 
include  all  the  energies  of  the  universe.  The 
world,  as  we  see  it,  is,  indeed,  full  of  opposing 
powers,  one  group  (yang)  representing  light 
and  warmth  and  life,  the  contrary  (yin)  mani¬ 
festing  themselves  in  cold  and  darkness  and 
death.1  But  these  are  both  encompassed  by 

1  The  sky  is  the  home  of  the  yang  ;  the  yin  are  referred 
to  the  earth,  in  curious  contrast  to  its  powers  of  production 
and  nourishment. 


96 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


the  66  Path  ”  or  Tao,  the  daily  course  of  the 
universe,  the  abiding  guarantee  of  justice 
in  the  distribution  of  good  and  evil  in  the 
human  lot.  Heaven  and  earth  are  thus 
regarded  as  themselves  active  or  living;  they 
constantly  maintain  the  order  of  nature  for 
the  welfare  of  man.  In  the  ancient  Odes 
(which  Confucius  was  supposed  to  have 
edited)  “  heaven  ”  is  called  great  and  wide 
and  blue.  This  is  plainly  the  visible  firma¬ 
ment  ;  it  is  addressed  as  parent,  a#nd  sky  and 
earth  together  are  father  and  mother  of  the 
world.  They  are  not  spirits,  but  are  them¬ 
selves  animate.  “  Why,”  laments  Dr.  Edkins 
of  his  Chinese  hearers,  66  they  have  been  often 
asked,  should  you  speak  of  these  things  which 
are  dead  matter,  fashioned  from  nothing 
by  the  hand  of  God,  as  living  beings  ?  ” 
“  And  why  not  ?  ”  they  have  replied.  44  The 
sky  pours  down  rain  and  sunshine,  the  earth 
produces  corn  and  grass,  we  see  them  in 
perpetual  movement,  and  we  therefore  say 
they  are  living.” 

The  Chinese  genius  was  ethical  rather  than 
metaphysical.  It  was  not  concerned  with 
the  Infinite,  the  Eternal,  and  the  Absolute. 
But  it  was  deeply  impressed  with  the  moral 
aspects  of  the  sky,  its  universality,  its  compre¬ 
hensive  embrace  of  all  objects  and  powers 
beneath  its  far-stretching  dome,  its  all-seeing 
view,  its  inflexible  impartiality.  Its  decrees 
are  steadfast,  and  proceeded  from  its  sovereign 
sway ;  and  in  this  capacity  it  bore  the 


RELIGION  IN  LOWER  CULTURE  97 


august  title  of  Shang  Ti,  64  Supreme  Ruler.” 
The  scholastic  philosophers  of  a  later  day 
analysed  44  Heaven  ”  in  this  capacity  into  the 
actual  sky  and  its  controlling  personality, 
and  Shang  Ti  became  the  Moral  Governor  of 
the  Universe,  the  equivalent  of  the  western 
God. 

Beneath  the  sky  lay  the  earth,  receptive  of 
the  energies  descending  upon  it  from  on  high ; 
44  Heaven  and  Earth,  Father  and  Mother,” 
are  conjoined  in  common  speech.  Together 
they  guided  the  changes  of  the  year,  in 
steadfast  tread  along  the  annual  round. 
Folded  in  their  wide  compass  were  the  Shin, 
charged  with  the  regulation  of  the  elemental 
powers.  Under  Heaven’s  control  were  the 
Shin  of  sun  and  moon,  planets,  stars,  meteors, 
comets;  of  clouds  and  winds,  thunder  and 
rain;  of  the  'seasons,  months,  and  days. 
Those  of  the  earth  were  organised  in  territorial 
divisions,  representing  the  dominions  of  the 
vassal  princes  down  to  the  district  areas. 
The  higher  were  graded  according  to  the 
political  rank  of  the  several  provinces;  be¬ 
neath  them  were  reckoned  the  spirits  of  the 
mountains,  forests,  seas,  rivers,  and  grains. 
The  privileges  of  worship  granted  to  the 
various  officials  were  part  of  the  State  order, 
and  helped  to  maintain  political  and  civic 
stability. 

The  imperial  sacrifices  to  Heaven  and 
Earth  were  performed  at  the  winter  and  the 
summer  solstices.  The  great  altar  to  Heaven 

G 


0 


98 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


stands  in  a  large  park  in  the  southern  division 
of  Peking,  a  vast  marble  structure  in  three 
stages,  the  lowest  being  210  feet  across.  It 
is  the  largest  altar  in  the  world.  Its  white 
colour  symbolises  the  light  principle  of  the 
Yang.  The  upper  stage,  ninety  feet  in 
diameter,  has  for  its  centre  a  round  blue  jade 
stone,  the  svmbol  of  the  vault  above.  Here  is 
placed  the  tablet  to  Heaven,  inscribed  “Throne 
of  Sovereign  Heaven,”  and  associated  with 
it  are  tablets  to  deceased  emperors  as  well  as 
to  the  Sun  and  Moon,  the  seven  stars  of  the 
Great  Bear,  the  five  Planets,  the  twenty-eight 
Constellations,  and  the  Stars.  On  the  second 
stage,  beneath  the  richly  carved  balustrade 
above,  are  the  tablets  to  the  Clouds  and  Rain, 
to  Wind  and  Thunder.  At  the  corresponding 
altar  to  the  Earth  on  the  north  side  of  the 
city,  square  in  shape,  and  dark-yellow  in  hue, 
the  imperial  worship  at  the  summer  solstice 
embraces  also  the  five  lofty  Mountains,  the 
three  Hills  of  Perpetual  Peace,  the  four  Seas, 
the  five  celebrated  Mountains,  and  the  four 
great  Rivers.1 

Splendid  processions  of  princes  and  digni¬ 
taries,  musicians  and  singers,  accompany  the 
Emperor  to  the  great  ceremonial.  The  recent 
Manchu  sovereigns  employed  the  prayers  of 
the  Ming  dynasty  which  preceded  them  :  here 

1  It  is  stated  by  the  North  China  Herald  for  July  13, 
that  the  present  Chinese  Government  proposes  to  convert 
the  Temple  of  Heaven  into  a  model  farm,  and  the  Temple 
of  Earth  into  a  horse-breeding  establishment. 


RELIGION  IN  LOWER  CULTURE  99 


are  one  or  two  stanzas  of  a  psalm  in  which 
the  Emperor  Kia-tsing  in  the  sixteenth  century 
announced  to  Shang  Ti  that  he  would  be 
addressed  as  44  dwelling  in  the  sovereign 
heavens  ”  : — 

44  O  Ti,  when  thou  hadst  separated  the  Yin 
and  the  Yang  (i.  e .  the  earth  and  the  sky), 
thy  creative  work  proceeded. 

44  Thou  didst  produce  the  sun  and  moon 
and  the  five  planets,  and  pure  and  beautiful 
was  their  light. 

44  The  vault  of  heaven  was  spread  out  like 
a  curtain,  and  the  square  earth  supported 
all  upon  it,  and  all  things  were  happy. 

64 1  thy  servant  venture  reverently  to  thank 
thee,  and  while  I  worship,  present  the  notice 
to  thee,  calling  thee  Sovereign. 

V 

•  •  •  •  • 

44  All  the  numerous  tribes  of  animated 
beings  are  indebted  to  thy  favour  for  their 
beginning. 

44  Men  and  things  are  all  emparadised  in 
thy  love,  O  Ti. 

44  All  living  things  are  indebted  to  thy 
goodness,  but  who  knows  from  whom  his 
blessings  come  to  him. 

44  It  is  thou  alone,  O  Lord,  who  art  the 
true  parent  of  all  things.” 

Here  the  ancient  view  of  the  living  sky 
has  given  place  under  the  influences  of 

G  2 


100  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


philosophy  to  a  creative  monotheism.  No 
image  is  made  of  Shang  Ti.  As  he  stands 
at  the  head  of  the  manifold  ranks  of  the 
Shin ,  he  represents  the  last  word  of  animism 
in  providing  an  intellectual  form  for  religion. 


CHAPTER  IV 

SPIRITS  AND  GODS 

Religion  in  the  lower  culture  takes  many 
forms,  but,  speaking  broadly,  they  rest  upon 
a  common  interpretation  of  the  world.  Man 
sees  around  him  all  kinds  of  motion  and 
change.  He  finds  in  everything  that  happens 
some  energy  or  power ;  and  the  only  kind  of 
power  which  he  knows  is  that  which  he  him¬ 
self  exerts.  As  long  as  he  is  alive  he  can  run 
and  fight,  he  can  throw  the  spear  or  guide  the 
canoe ;  deathv  comes  to  the  comrade  by  his 
side,  and  all  is  still.  So  in  wind  and  stream, 
in  beast  and  tree,  in  the  stones  that  fall  upon 
the  mountain  side,  in  the  stars  that  march 
across  the  nightly  sky,  he  sees  a  like  power; 
they,  too,  have  some  sort  of  life. 

Life  as  an  abstract  idea,  a  potency  or 
principle,  is  but  rarely  grasped.  But  its 
manifestations  early  attract  notice,  and  can 
be  roughly  explained.  They  are  due  to  some¬ 
thing  inside  the  living  body,  which  can  pass 
in  and  out,  and  can  finally  leave  it  altogether. 
Here  is  an  immense  store  of  causality  pro¬ 
vided,  to  account  for  all  the  incidents  of 
each  day’s  experience.  Modern  language  calls 

101 


102  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


such  agents  spirits,  and  recognises  in  their 
multitude  two  mingled  groups,  both  active : 
the  spirits  of  the  dead  on  the  one  hand,  and 
those  of  natural  objects,  the  bubbling  well, 
the  gloomy  forest,  the  raging  storm,  upon  the 
other. 

Sometimes  these  are  merged  under  a 
common  term,  like  the  Japanese  kami,  some¬ 
times  they  are  separately  named.  They  bear 
different  characters  of  good  and  evil,  as  they 
are  ready  to  help  or  hurt ;  and  the  same  spirit 
may  be  now  kindly  and  now'^hostile,  without 
fixity  of  disposition  or  purpose.  To  such 
spirits  the  ancient  Babylonians  gave  the  name 
of  zi.  Literally,  we  are  told,  the  word 
signified  “  life  ” ;  it  was  indicated  in  their 
picture-writing  by  a  flowering  plant ;  the 
great  gods,  and  even  heaven  and  earth  them¬ 
selves,  all  had  their  zi,  The  Egyptians,  in 
like  manner,  ascribed  to  every  object,  to 
human  beings,  and  to  gods,  a  double  or  ka. 
The  word  seems  to  be  identical  with  that  for 
“  food  ” ;  it  was  another  way  of  indicating 
that  all  visible  things,  the  peoples  of  the 
earth,  the  dwellers  in  the  realms  above  and 
below,  shared  a  common  life. 

The  history  of  religion  is  concerned  with 
the  process  by  which  the  great  gods  rise  into 
clear  view  above  the  host  of  spirits  filling  the 
common  scene ;  with  the  modes  in  which 
the  forces  of  the  world  may  be  grouped  under 
their  control ;  with  the  manifold  combinations 
which  finally  enable  one  supreme  power  to 


SPIRITS  AND  GODS 


103 


absorb  all  the  rest,  so  that  a  god  of  the  sky, 
like  the  Greek  Zeus,  may  become  a  god  of 
rain  and  sunshine  and  atmospheric  change, 
of  earth  and  sea,  and  of  the  nether  world ;  and 
may  thus  be  presented  as  the  sole  and  universal 
energy,  not  only  of  all  outward  things  but  also 
of  the  inner  world  of  thought.  Of  this 
immense  development  language,  archaeology, 
literature,  the  dedications  of  worship,  the 
testimonies  of  the  ancient  students  of  their 
still  more  ancient  past  in  ritual  and  belief, 
contain  the  scattered  witness,  which  the 
student  of  to-day  laboriously  gathers  and 
interprets.  It  is  the  humbler  object  of  a  little 
manual  of  Comparative  Religion  to  set  some 
of  the  principal  issues  of  such  historic  evolution 
side  by  side,  and  show  how  similar  reactions 
of  the  mind  of  man  upon  the  field  of  his 
experience  ha,ve  wrought  like  results. 

As  the  inquirer  casts  his  eye  over  the  mani¬ 
fold  varieties  of  the  world’s  faiths,  he  sees  that 
they  are  always  conditioned  by  the  stage  of 
social  culture  out  of  which  they  emerge.  The 
hunter  who  lives  by  the  chase,  and  must  range 
over  large  areas  for  means  of  support;  the 
pastoral  herdsman  who  has  acquired  the  art 
of  breeding  cattle  and  sheep,  and  slowly 
moves  from  one  set  of  feeding-grounds  to 
another ;  the  agriculturist  who  has  learned 
to  rely  on  the  co-operation  of  earth  and  sky 
in  the  annual  round, — have  each  their  own 
way  of  expressing  their  view  of  the  Powers 
on  which  they  depend. 


104  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


Little  by  little  they  are  arranged  in  groups. 
The  Celts,  for  instance,  coming  to  river  after 
river  in  their  onward  march,  employed  the 
same  name  again  and  again,  4  4  Deuona,” 
divine  (still  surviving  in  this  country  in 
different  forms,  Devon,  Dee,  etc.),  as  though 
all  rivers  belonged  to  one  power.  They  were 
the  givers  of  life  and  health  and  plenty,  to 
whom  costly  sacrifices  must  be  made.  So  they 
might  bear  the  title  44  Mother,”  and  were  akin 
to  the  powers  of  fertility  living  in  the  soil,  the 
44  Mothers  ”  (Matres  or  Matronce),  cognate 
with  the  44  Mothers  ”  who  fulfil  similar  func¬ 
tions  in  modern  India.  The  adjacent  Teu¬ 
tonic  peoples  filled  forest  and  field  with 
wood-sprites  and  elves,  dwellers  in  the  air 
and  the  sunlight.  The  springs,  the  streams, 
and  the  lakes,  were  the  home  of  the  water- 
sprites  or  nixes;  in  the  fall  ojf  the  mighty 
torrent,  among  the  rocks  on  the  mountain 
heights,  in  the  fury  of  the  storm  or  the 
severity  of  the  frost,  was  the  strength  of  the 
giants. 

Yet  further  east  and  north  the  Finnic  races 
looked  out  on  a  land  of  forest  and  waters,  of 
mists  and  winds.  The  spirits  were  ranged 
beneath  rulers  who  were  figured  in  human 
form.  The  huntsman  prayed  with  vow  and 
sacrifice  to  the  aged  Tapio,  god  of  the  woods 
and  the  wild  animals.  Kekri  watched  over 
the  increase  of  the  herd,  while  Hillervo  pro¬ 
tected  them  on  the  summer  pastures.  The 
grains  and  herbs — of  less  importance  to  tribes 


SPIRITS  AND  GODS 


105 


only  imperfectly  agricultural — were  ascribed 
to  the  care  of  Pellervoinen,  who  falls  into  the 
background  and  receives  but  little  veneration. 
Water,  once  worshipped  as  a  living  element 
( vesi ),  is  gradually  supplanted  by  a  water -god 
(Ahto)  who  rules  over  the  spirits  of  lakes  and 
rivers,  wells  and  springs.  44  Mother -earth  ” 
still  designates  in  the  oldest  poetry  the  living 
energy  of  the  ground,  though  she  afterwards 
becomes  the  44  lady  of  the  earth  ”  and  consort 
of  the  lord  of  the  sky.  The  sky,  Jumala,  was 
first  of  all  conceived  as  itself  living ;  44  Ju- 
mala’s  weather  ”  was  like  44  Zeus’s  shower  ” 
to  an  ancient  Greek.  And  then,  under  the 
name  Ukko,  the  sky  becomes  a  personal  ruler, 
with  clouds  and  rain,  thunder  and  hail, 
beneath  his  sway ;  who  can  be  addressed  as — 

44  Ukko,  thou  of  gods  the  highest, 

Ukko,  thou  our  Heavenly  Father.” 

Many  causes  contribute  to  the  enlargement 
and  stability  of  such  conceptions.  Tribes 
of  imited  local  range  and  a  meagre  past  with¬ 
out  traditions  may  conceive  the  world  around 
them  on  a  feeble  scale.  But  migration  helps 
to  enlarge  the  outlook.  Local  powers  cannot 
accompany  tribes  upon  the  march.  Either 
they  must  be  left  behind  and  drop  out  of 
remembrance,  or  they  must  be  identified  with 
new  scenes  and  adapted  to  fresh  environments. 
When  the  horizon  moves  ever  further  forwards 
with  each  advance,  earth  and  sky  loom  vaster 


106  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


before  the  imagination,  and  sun  and  moon, 
the  companion  of  each  day  or  the  protector 
of  each  night,  gain  a  more  stately  predomin¬ 
ance.  The  ancestors  of  the  Hindus,  the 
Greeks,  the  Romans,  the  Teutons,  carried 
with  them  the  worship  of  the  sky-god  under  a 
common  name,  derived  from  the  root  div ,  to 
64  shine  ”  (Dyaus  =  2eus  =  Jovis  =  old  High 
German  Tiu,  as  in  Tuesday).  Other  names 
gathered  around  the  person  in  the  actual 
firmament,  such  as  the  Sanskrit  Varuna  (still 
recognised  by  some  scholars  as  identical  with 
the  Greek  Ouranos,  heaven),  loftiest  of  all 
the  Vedic  gods.  The  Aryan  immigrants  are 
already  organised  <  under  kings,  and  Varuna 
sits  enthroned  in  sovereignty.  His  palace  "is 
supported  by  a  thousand  pillars,  and  a  thou¬ 
sand  doors  provide  open  access  for  his  wor¬ 
shippers.  But  he  is  in  some,  sense  omni¬ 
present,  and  one  of  the  ancient  poets  sang — 

44  If  a  man  stands  or  walks  or  hides,  if  he 
goes  to  lie  down  or  to  get  up,  what  two  people 
sitting  together  whisper,  King  Varuna  knows 
it,  he  is  there  as  the  third. 

44  This  earth,  too,  belongs  to  Varuna,  the 
king,  and  this  wide  sky  with  its  ends  far  apart. 
The  two  seas  (sky  and  ocean)  are  Varuna’s 
loins ;  he  is  also  contained  in  this  small  drop 
of  water. 

44  He  who  should  flee  far  beyond  the  sky, 
even  he  would  not  be  rid  of  Varuna,  the 
king.’? 


SPIRITS  AND  GODS 


107 


The  supreme  power  of  the  universe  is  here 
conceived  under  a  political  image.  Concep¬ 
tions  of  government  and  social  order  supply 
another  Tine  of  advance,  parallel  with  the 
forces  of  nature.  On  the  African  Gold  Coast, 
after  eighteen  years’  observation,  Cruickshank 
ranged  the  objects  of  worship  in  three  ranks : 
a)  the  stone,  the  tree,  the  river,  the  snake, 
the  alligator,  the  bundle  of  rags,  which  consti¬ 
tuted  the  private  fetish  of  the  individual ; 
(2)  the  greater  family  deity  whose  aid  was 
sought  by  all  alike,  sometimes  in  a  singular 
act  of  communion  which  involved  the  swallow¬ 
ing  of  the  god  (p.  144) ;  and  (3)  the  deity  of 
the  whole  town,  to  whom  the  entire  people 
had  recourse  in  times  of  calamity  and  suffering. 

The  conception  of  the  deity  of  a  tribe  or 
nation  may  be  greatly  developed  under  the 
influence  of  victory.  War  becomes  a  struggle 
between  rival  gods.  Jephthah  the  Gileadite, 
after  recounting  the  triumphs  of  Israel  to 
the  hostile  Ammonite  king,  states  the  case 
with  the  most  naked  simplicity  :  “  Yahweh, 
Israel’s  god,  hath  dispossessed  the  Amorites 
from  before  his  people  Israel,  and  shouldest 
thou  possess  them  ?  Wilt  thou  not  possess 
that  which  Chemosh  thy  god  giveth  thee  to 
possess  ?  So  whomsoever  Yahweh  our  god 
hath  dispossessed  from  before  us,  them  will 
we  possess  ”  (Judges  xi.  23,  24).  The  land 
of  Canaan  was  the  gift  of  Israel’s  God,  but  at 
first  his  power  was  limited  by  its  boundaries : 
to  be  driven  from  the  country  was  to  be 


108  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


alienated  from  the  right  to  offer  him  worship 
or  receive  from  him  protection.  In  the 
famous  battle  with  the  Hittites,  celebrated  by 
the  court -poet  of  Rameses  the  Great  (1300- 
1234  b.c.),  the  king,  endangered  by  the  flight 
of  his  troops,  appeals  to  the  great  god  Amen, 
a  form  of  the  solar  deity  Re,  with  confidence 
of  help,  u  Amen  shall  bring  to  nought  the 
ignorers  of  God  ”  :  and  the  answer  comes, 
“  I  am  with  thee,  I  am  thy  father,  my 
hand  is  with  thee,  I  am  more  excellent  for 
thee  than  hundreds  of  thousands  united  in 
one.”  Success  thus  enhanced  the  glory  of 
the  victor’s  gods.  Like  the  Incas  of  Peru  in 
later  days,  the  Assyrian  sovereigns  confirmed 
their  power  by  bringing  the  c^ities  of  tributary 
peoples  in  a  captive  train  to  their  own  capital : 
and  the  Hebrew  prophet  opens  his  description 
of  the  fall  of  Babylon  by  depicting  the  images 
of  the  great  gods  Bel  and  Nebo  as  packed  for 
deportation  on  the  transport -animals  of  the 
conqueror. 

Other  causes  further  tended  to  give  dis¬ 
tinction  to  the  personality  of  deities,  and 
define  their  spheres.  A  promiscuous  horde 
of  spirits  has  no  family  relationships.  A  god 
may  have  a  pedigree ;  a  consort  is  at  his  side ; 
and  the  mysterious  divine  power  reappears 
in  a  son.  Instead  of  the  political  analogy  of 
a  sovereign  and  his  attendants,  the  family 
conception  expresses  itself  in  a  divine  father, 
mother  and  child.  Thus  the  Ibani  of  Southern 
Nigeria  recognised  Adum  as  the  father  of  all 


SPIRITS  AND  GODS 


109 


gods  except  Tamuno  the  creator,  espoused 
to  Okoba  ;the  principal  goddess,  and  mother 
of  Eberebo,  represented  as  a  boy,  to  whom 
children  were  dedicated.  The  Egyptian  triad, 
Osiris,  Isis  and  Horns,  is  well  known ;  and  the 
divine  mother  with  the  babe  upon  her  lap 
passed  into  the  Christian  Church  in  the  form 
of  the  Virgin  Mary  and  her  infant  son. 

The  divisions  of  the  universe  suggested 
another  grouping.  The  Vedic  poets  arranged 
their  deities  in  three  zones  :  the  sky  above,  the 
intervening  atmosphere,  and  the  earth  be¬ 
neath.  Babylonian  cosmology  placed  Anu 
in  the  heaven,  Bel  on  the  earth,  and  Ea  in  the 
great  deep,  and  these  three  became  the 
symbols  of  the  order  of  nature,  and  the  divine 
embodiments  of  physical  law.  Homer  already 
divides  the  world  between  the  sky-god  Zeus, 
Poseidon  of  earth  and  sea,  and  Hades  of  the 
nether  realm  :  and  Rome  has  its  triads,  like 
Jupiter,  Mars,  and  Quirinus,  or  again  Jupiter, 
Juno,  and  Minerva.  Whatever  be  the  origin 
of  the  number  three  in  this  connection,  it 
reproduces  itself  with  strange  reiteration  in 
both  hemispheres.  Other  groups  are  sug¬ 
gested  by  the  sun  and  moon  and  the  five 
planets,  and  appear  in  sets  of  seven.  Egyptian 
summaries  recognised  gods  in  the  sky,  on 
earth,  and  in  the  water ;  and  the  theologians 
of  different  sanctuaries  loved  to  arrange  them 
in  systems  of  nine,  or  three  times  three. 

Out  of  this  vast  and  motley  multitude 
emerge  certain  leading  types  in  correspondence 


110  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


with  certain  modes  of  human  thought,  with 
certain  hopes  and  fears  arising  out  of  the 
changes  of  the  human  lot.  Curiosity  begins 
to  ask  questions  about  the  scene  around. 
The  child,  when  it  has  grasped  some  simple 
view  of  the  world,  will  inquire  who  made  it ; 
and  to  the  usual  answer  will  by  and  by  rejoin 
“  And  who  made  God  ?  ”  Elementary  specu¬ 
lation  does  not  advance  so  far  :  it  is  content 
to  rest  if  necessary  in  darkness  and  the  void, 
provided  there  is  a  power  which  can  light 
the  sun,  and  set  man  on  his  feet.  But  the 
intellectual  range  of  thought  even  in  the  lower 
culture  is  much  wider  than  might  have  been 
anticipated  ;  while  the  higher  religions  contain 
abundant  survivals  of  the  cruder  imagination 
which  simply  loves  a  tale. 

Sometimes  the  creative  power  (especially 
on  the  American  continent)  is  *  figured  as  a 
marvellous  animal,  a  wondrous  raven,  a  bird- 
serpent,  a  great  hare,  a  mighty  beaver.  Or 
the  dome  of  sky  suggests  an  original  world- 
egg,  which  has  been  divided  to  make  heaven 
and  earth.  Even  the  Australians,  whose 
characteristics  are  variously  interpreted  as 
indications  of  extreme  backwardness  or  of 
long  decline,  show  figures  which  belong  to 
what  Mr.  Andrew  Lang  designated  the  “  High 
Gods  of  Low  Races.”  Among  the  Narrinyeri 
in  the  west  Nurrundere  was  said  to  have  made 
all  things  on  the  earth;  the  Wiimbaio  told 
how  Nurelli  had  made  the  whole  country  with 
the  rivers,  trees,  and  animals.  Among  the 


SPIRITS  AND  GODS 


111 


Western  Bantu  on  the  African  continent 
Nzambi  (a  name  with  many  variants  over  a 
large  area)  is  described  as  44  Maker  and 
Father.5’  44  Our  forefathers  told  us  that  name. 
Njambi  is  the  One -who -made -us.  He  is  our 
Father,  he  made  these  trees,  that  mountain, 
this  river,  these  goats  and  chickens,  and  us 
people.55  That  is  the  simple  African  version 
of  the  44  ever-and-beyond.”  But  as  with  so 
many  of  the  chief  gods,  not  only  on  the  dark 
continent,  but  elsewhere,  he  is  regarded 
as  a  non-interfering  and  therefore  negligible 
deity. 

Sometimes  speculation  takes  a  higher  flight. 
The  Zunis  of  Mexico  have  remained  in 
possession  of  ancient  traditions,  uninfluenced 
by  any  imported  Christianity.  After  many 
years5  residence  among  them  Mr.  Cushing 
was  able  to  gather  their  ideas  of  the  origin 
of  the  world.  Awona-wilona  was  the  Maker 
and  Container  of  all,  the  All-Father-Father. 
Through  the  great  space  of  the  ages  there 
was  nothing  else  whatever,  only  black  dark¬ 
ness  everywhere.  Then  44  in  the  beginning 
of  the  new-made  55  Awona-wilona  conceived 
within  himself,  and  44  thought  outward  in 
space,55  whereby  mists  of  increase,  steams 
potent  of  growth,  were  evolved  and  uplifted. 
Thus  by  means  of  his  innate  knowledge  the 
All -Container  made  himself  in  the  person  and 
form  of  the  sun.  With  his  appearance  came 
the  brightening  of  the  spaces  with  light,  and 
with  the  brightening  of  the  spaces  the  great 


112  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


mist-clouds  were  thickened  together  and  fell. 
Thereby  was  evolved  water  in  water,  yea  and 
the  world-holding  sea.  And  then  came  the 
production  of  the  Fourfold-Containing  Mother- 
Earth  and  the  All-Covering  Father-Sky. 

With  a  yet  bolder  leap  of  imagination  did 
a  Polynesian  poet  picture  the  great  process. 
From  island  to  island  between  Hawaii  and 
New  Zealand  is  a  “  high  god 55  known  as 
Taaroa,  Tangaloa,  Tangaroa,  and  Kanaroa. 
The  Samoans  said  that  he  existed  in  space  and 
wished  for  some  place  to  dwell  in,  so  he  made 
the  heavens ;  and  then  wished  to  have  a  place 
under  the  heavens,  so  he  made  the  earth. 
Tahitian  mythology  declared  (the  versions  of 
priests  and  wise  men  differed)  that  he  was 
born  of  night  or  darkness.  Then  he  em¬ 
braced  a  rock,  the  imagined  foundation  of  all 
things,  which  brought  forth  earth  and  sea; 
the  heavens  were  created  with  sun,  moon, 
and  stars,  clouds,  wind,  and  rain,  and  the  dry 
land  appeared  below.  The  whole  process 
was  summed  up  in  a  hymn — 

He  was  :  Taaroa  was  his  name. 

He  abode  in  the  void ;  no  earth,  no  sea,  no 
sky. 

Taaroa  calls,  but  nought  answers, 

Then,  alone  existing,  he  became  the  uni¬ 
verse.” 

The  relations  of  these  creative  Powers  to 
man  are  conceived  very  differently.  The 


SPIRITS  AND  GODS 


113 


Maker  of  the  world  may  be  continually 
interested  in  it,  and  may  continue  to  ad¬ 
minister  the  processes  which  he  has  begun. 
The  Akkra  negro  looks  up  to  the  living  sky, 
Nyongmo,  as  the  author  of  all  things,  who  is 
benevolently  active  day  by  day  :  64  We  see 
every  day,5’  said  a  fetish-man,  44  how  the  grass, 
the  corn,  and  the  trees,  spring  forth  through 
the  rain  and  sunshine  sent  by  Nyongmo 
[. Nyongmo  ne  =  4  Nyongmo  rains  ’],  how 
should  he  not  be  the  creator  ?  ”  So  he  is 
invoked  with  prayer  and  rite.  The  great 
Babylonian  god,  Marduk,  son  of  Ea  (god  of 
wisdom  and  spells),  alone  succeeds  in  over¬ 
coming  the  might  of  Tiamat  (the  Hebrew 
tehfim  or  44  deep  ”),  the  primeval  chaos  with 
her  hideous  brood  of  monsters,  and  out  of 
her  carcass  makes  the  firmament  of  heaven. 
He  arranges  the  stations  of  the  stars,  he  founds 
the  earth,  and  places  man  upon  it.  44  His 
word  is  established,”  cries  the  poet,  44  his 
command  is  unchangeable  :  wide  is  his  heart, 
broad  is  his  compassion.”  A  conqueror  so 
splendid  could  not  relinquish  his  energy,  or 
rest  on  his  achievements  :  he  must  remain  on 
the  throne  of  the  world  to  direct  and  support 
its  ways.  Here  is  a  prayer  of  Nebuchad¬ 
rezzar  to  this  lofty  deity — 

44  O  eternal  ruler,  lord  of  all  being,  grant 
that  the  name  of  the  king  thou  lovest,  whose 
name  thou  hast  proclaimed,  may  flourish  as 
seems  pleasing  to  thee.  Lead  him  in  the  right 
H 


114  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


way.  I  am  the  prince  that  obeys  thee,  the 
creature  of  thy  hand.  Thou  hast  created  me, 
and  hast  entrusted  to  me  dominion  over  man¬ 
kind.  According  to  thy  mercy,  O  lord,  which 
thou  bestowest  upon  all,  may  thy  supreme 
rule  be  merciful  !  The  worship  of  thy  divinity 
implant  within  my  heart.  Grant  me  what 
seems  good  to  thee,  for  thou  art  he  that  hast 
fashioned  my  life.” 

On  the  other  hand,  the  44  High  Gods  of  Low 
Races  5  5  often  seem  to  fade  away  and  become 
inactive,  or  at  least  are  out  of  relations  to 
man.  Olorun,  lord  of  the  sky  among  the 
African  Egbas,  also  bore  the  title  of  Eleda, 
44  the  Creator.”  But  he  was  too  remote  and 
exalted  to  be  the  object  of  human  worship, 
and  no  prayer  was  offered  to  him.  Among 
the  southern  Arunta  of  central  Australia, 
reports  Mr.  Strehlow,  Altjira  is  believed  to 
live  in  the  sky.  He  is  like  a  strong  man  save 
that  he  has  emu  feet.  He  created  the 
heavenly  bodies,  sun,  moon,  and  stars. 
When  rain-clouds  come  up,  it  is  Altjira 
walking  through  the  sky.  Altjira  shows 
himself  to  man  in  the  lightning,  the  thunder 
is  his  voice.  But  though  thus  animate,  he 
is  no  object  of  worship.  44  Altjira  is  a  good 
god;  he  never  punishes  man;  therefore  the 
blacks  do  not  fear  him,  and  render  him  neither 
prayer  nor  sacrifice.”  In  Indian  theology 
the  reason  for  the  discontinuance  of  homage 
was  thus  frankly  stated  by  one  of  the  poets 


SPIRITS  AND  GODS 


115 


of  the  great  epic,  the  Mahabharata ;  66  Men 
worship  Civa  the  destroyer  because  they  fear 
him ;  Vishnu  the  preserver,  because  they 
hope  from  him;  but  who  worships  Brahman 
the  creator  ?  His  work  is  done .” 1 

If  the  deity  who  has  provided  the  scene  of 
existence  thus  recedes  into  the  background, 
it  is  otherwise  with  the  powers  which  maintain 
and  foster  life.  Among  the  impulses  which 
drive  man  to  action  is  the  need  of  food ;  and 
the  sources  of  its  supply  are  among  the  earliest 
objects  of  his  regard.  A  large  group  of  agen¬ 
cies  thus  gradually  wins  recognition,  out  of 
which  emerge  lofty  forms  endowed  with 
functions  far  transcending  the  simple  energies 
at  first  ascribed  to  them.  Even  the  rude 
tribes  of  Australia,  possessing  no  definite 
worship,  perform  pantomimic  ceremonies  of 
a  magical  kind,  designed  to  stimulate  the  food 
supply.  The  men  of  the  plum-tree  totem 
will  pretend  to  knock  down  plums  and  eat 
them ;  in  the  initiation  ceremony  of  the  eagle - 
hawks  two  representatives  will  imitate  the 
flapping  of  wings  and  the  movements  of  attack, 
and  one  will  finally  wrench  a  piece  of  meat  out 
of  the  other’s  mouth.  At  a  higher  stage  of 
animism  the  Indians  of  British  North  America 
pray  to  the  spirit  of  the  wild  raspberry. 
When  the  young  shoots  are  six  or  eight  inches 
high  above  the  ground,  a  small  bundle  is 

1  Hopkins,  India,  Old  and  New,  p.  113.  Prof.  Hopkins 
adds  that  in  India  to-day  there  are  thousands  of  temples 
to  CJiva  and  Vishnu,  hut  only  two  to  Brahman. 

H  2 


116  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


picked  by  the  wife  or  daughters  of  the  chief 
and  cooked  in  a  new  pot.  The  settlement 
assembles  in  a  great  circle,  with  the  presiding 
chief  and  the  medicine -man  in  the  midst. 
All  close  their  eyes,  except  certain  assisting 
elders,  while  the  chief  offers  a  silent  prayer 
that  the  spirit  of  the  plants  will  be  propitious 
to  them,  and  grant  them  a  good  supply  of 
suckers. 

Here  the  whole  class  of  plants  is  already 
conceived  as  under  the  control  of  a  single 
power.  In  ruder  stages  the  hunter  will 
address  his  petitions  to  the  individual  bear, 
before  whose  massive  stature  he  feels  a  certain 
awe,  entreating  him  not  to  be  angry  or  fight, 
but  to  take  pity  on  him.  Pastoral  peoples 
will  employ  domesticated  animals  in  sacrifice, 
while  the  products  of  the  field  occupy  a  second 
place;  the  cow  may  become  sacred,  and  the 
daily  work  of  the  dairy  may  rise,  as  among  the 
Todas,  to  the  rank  of  religious  ritual.  Some 
element  of  mysterious  energy  will  even  lie  in 
the  weapons  of  the  chase,  in  the  net  or  the 
canoe,  and  may  be  found  still  lingering  in  the 
implements  of  agriculture,  such  as  the  plough. 

Among  settled  communities  which  live  by 
tillage  the  succession  of  -the  crops  from  year 
to  year  acquires  immense  importance.  Earth 
and  sky,  the  sun,  the  rain,  and  time  itself  in 
the  background,  are  all  contributory  powers, 
but  attention  is  fastened  upon  the  spirit  of 
the  grains.  The  Iroquois  look  on  the  spirits 
of  corn,  of  squashes,  and  of  beans,  as  three 


SPIRITS  AND  GODS 


117 


sisters,  who  are  known  collectively  as  64  Our 
Life  ”  or  “  Our  Supporters.”  In  central 
America  each  class  of  food-plants  had  its 
corresponding  spirit,  which  presided  over  its 
germination,  nourishment,  and  growth.  This 
was  called  the  mama  or  46  mother  ”  of  the 
plant  :  in  Peru  there  was  a  cocoa -mother,  a 
potato -mother,  a  maize -mother ;  just  as  in 
India  the  cotton-spirit  is  worshipped  as 
44  cotton-mother.”  A  44  maize -mother,”  made 
of  the  finest  stalks,  was  renewed  at  each 
harvest,  that  the  seed  might  preserve  its 
vitality.  The1  figure,  richly  clothed,  was 
ceremoniously  installed,  and  watched  for 
three  nights.  Sacrifice  was  solemnly  offered, 
and  the  interpreter  inquired,  44  Maize -mother, 
canst'thou  live  till  next  year  ?  ”  If  the  spirit 
answered  affirmatively,  the  figure  remained 
for  a  twelvemonth;  if  no  reply  was  vouch¬ 
safed,  it  was  taken  away  and  burnt,  and  a 
fresh  one  was  consecrated.  In  Mexico  maize 
was  a  much  more  important  food  than  in 
Peru,  and  the  maize -deity  acquired  in  conse¬ 
quence  a  much  higher  rank.  She  became  a 
great  harvest  goddess.  Temple  and  altar 
were  dedicated  to  her;  spring  and  summer 
festivals*  were  celebrated  in  her  honour ;  and 
a  youthful  victim  was  slain,  whose  vitality 
might  enter  the  soil,  and  recruit  her  exhausted 
energies. 

The  ceremonies  connected  with  the  cultus 
of  the  rice -spirit  in  the  East  Indies  still 
perpetuate  in  living  faith  beliefs  once  vital 


118  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


in  the  peasantry  of  Europe,  and  surviving  to 
this  day  (as  Mannhardt  and  Frazer  have 
shown)  in  many  a  usage  of  the  harvest-field. 
Out  of  this  group  of  ideas  arise  divine  forms 
which  express  mysteries  of  life  and  time. 
What  is  it  that  guides  the  circle  of  the  year  ? 
What  power  brings  forth  the  blade  out  of  the 
ground,  and  clothes  the  woods  with  verdure  ? 
As  the  months  follow  their  constant  course,  are 
not  the  seasons  the  organs  of  some  sacred 
force,  lovely  figures  as  Greek  poets  taught, 
born  of  Zeus  and  Themis  (holy  law) ;  or  angels 
of  the  Most  High,  ruling  over  heat  and  cold, 
summer  and  winter,  spring  and  autumn,  as 
the  later  Israel  conceived  the  continuance  of 
God’s  creative  work  ?  And  when  the  fields 
are  bare  and  the  leaves  fall,  have  not  the 
energies  of  vegetation  suffered  an  arrest,  to 
come  to  life  again  when  the  great  quickening 
of  the  spring  returns  ?  So  while  here  and 
there  dim  speculations  (as  in  India  or  Persia 
or  the  Orphic  hymns  of  Greece)  hover  round 
Time,  the  generator  of  all  things,  and  the 
recurring  periodicity  of  the  Year,  more  con¬ 
crete  imagination  conceives  the  processes  of 
the  growth,  decay,  and  revival  of  vegetation 
under  the  symbols  of  the  life,  the  death,  and 
resurrection  of  the  deities  of  corn  and  tree. 

To  such  a  group  belong  different  forms  in 
Egypt,  Syria  and  Greece,  whose  precise  origin 
cannot  always  be  traced  amid  the  bewildering 
variety  of  functions  which  they  came  to  fulfil. 
But  they  all  illustrate  the  same  general  theme. 


SPIRITS  AND  GODS 


119 


In  the  ritual  of  their  worship  similar  motives 
and  symbols  may  be  traced ;  and  the  incidents 
of  their  life -course  were  presented  in  a  sort 
of  sacred  drama  which  reproduced  the  central 
mystery.  Such  were  Osiris  in  Egypt,  Adonis 
(as  the  Greeks  called  the  Syrian  form  of 
the  ancient  Babylonian  Tammuz),  Attis  of 
Phrygia  in  Asia  Minor,  and  in  Greece  the 
Thracian  Dionysus,  and  the  divine  pair 
Demeter  and  her  daughter  Persephone  blended 
with  the  figure  of  Kore  “  the  Maid.” 

The  worship  of  Osiris  early  spread  through¬ 
out  Egypt,  and  its  various  phases  have  given 
rise  to  many  interpretations  of  his  origin  and 
nature.  Recent  studies  have  converged  upon 
the  view  that  he  was  primarily  a  vegetation 
deity.  In  the  festival  of  sowing,  small 
images  of  the  god  formed  out  of  sand  or 
vegetable  earth  and  corn,  with  yellow  faces 
and  green  cheek-bones,  were  solemnly  buried, 
those  of  the  preceding  year  being  removed. 
On  the  temple  wall  of  his  chamber  at  Philae 
stalks  of  corn  were  depicted  springing  from 
his  dead  body,  while  a  priest  poured  water  on 
them  from  a  pitcher.  This  was  the  mystery 
of  him  “  who  springs  from  the  returning 
waters.”  The  annual  inundation  brought 
quickening  to  the  seed,  and  in  the  silence  and 
darkness  of  the  earth  it  died  to  live. 

Of  this  process  Osiris  became  the  type  for 
thousands  of  years.  Already  in  the  earliest 
days  of  the  Egyptian  monarchy  he  is  presented 
as  the  divine -human  king,  benevolent,  wise, 


120  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


just.  To  him  in  later  times  the  arts  and  laws 
of  civilised  life  could  be  traced  back;  he  was 
the  founder  of  the  social  order  and  the  worship 
of  the  gods.  But  the  jealousy  of  his  brother 
Set  brought  about  his  death.  The  ancient 
texts  do  not  explicitly  state  what  followed. 
But  his  body  was  cut  to  pieces  and  his  limbs 
were  scattered,  until  his  son  Horus  effected 
their  reunion.  Restored  to  life,  he  ascended 
to  the  skies,  and  became  44  Chief  of  the 
Powers,”  so  that  he  could  be  addressed  as 
the  44  Great  God.”  There  by  his  resurrection 
he  became  the  pledge  of  immortality.  Each 
man  who  died  looked  to  him  for  the  gift  of 
life.  Mystically  identified  with  him,  the 
deceased  bore  the  god’s  name  and  was  thus 
admitted  into  fellowship  with  him.  Over  his 
body  the  ceremonies  once  performed  upon 
Osiris  were  repeated,  the  same  formulae  were 
recited,  with  the  conviction  that  44  as  surely 
as  Osiris  lives,  so  shall  he  live  also.”  But 
magic  was  early  checked  by  morals,  and  by 
the  sixth  dynasty  Osiris  had  also  become  the 
august  and  impartial  judge  (p.  8). 

Such  might  be  the  splendid  evolution  of  a 
deity  of  the  grains.  But  food  was  not,  of 
course,  the  only  need.  The  family  as  well  as 
each  individual  must  be  maintained.  Mysteri¬ 
ous  powers  wrought  through  sex.  Strange 
energies  pulsed  in  processes  of  quickening, 
and  these,  too,  were  interpreted  in  terms  of 
divine  agency.  They  found  their  parallels 
in  the  operations  of  nature  (like  the  Yang  and 


SPIRITS  AND  GODS 


121 


Yin  of  ancient  China),  and  begot  new  series 
of  heavenly  forms.  The  greater  gods  all  had 
their  consorts.  Birth  must  be  placed  under 
divine  protection,  just  as  the  organ  of  genera¬ 
tion  might  itself  be  sacred.  The  Babylonian 
looked  to  the  spouse  of  Marduk,  64  creator  of 
all  things,”  to  whom  as  Zer-panitum,  44  seed- 
creatress,”  the  processes  of  generation  were 
especially  referred.  Or  with  ceremony  and 
incantation  the  child  was  set  beneath  the  care 
of  Ishtar,  queen  of  Nineveh,  and  goddess  of 
the  planet  Venus.  The  Greek  prayed  to 
Hera,  Artemis,  or  Eileithyia;  and  all  round 
the  world  superhuman  powers,  for  good  or 
ill,  gathered  round  the  infant  life,  whose  aid 
must  be  sought,  or  whose  hurt  averted. 
Dread  agencies  of  disease,  like  fever,  small¬ 
pox,  or  cholera,  were  in  like  manner  personal¬ 
ised.  Demonic  forces  cut  short  the  tale  of 
years.  From  the  equator  to  the  arctic  zone 
Death  is  ascribed  in  the  lowest  culture  to  witch¬ 
craft.  Strange  stories  were  told  of  his  intru¬ 
sion  into  the  world,  commonly  through  man’s 
transgression  of  some  divine  command.  And 
gradually  the  other  world  must  be  ruled  like 
this ;  the  multitudes  of  the  dead  need  a 
sovereign  like  the  living ;  and  after  the  fashion 
of  Osiris  the  Indian  Yama, 64  first  to  spy  out  the 
path  ”  to  the  unseen  realm,  becomes  the  44  King 
of  Righteousness  ”  before  whom  all  must  in 
due  time  give  their  account  (p.  244). 

Such  deities,  however,  represent  much  more 
than  the  physical  life.  They  have  a  social 


122  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


character,  and  have  become  the  expression  of 
organised  morality.  On  this  field  another 
group  of  divine  powers  comes  into  view, 
symbols  of  order  in  the  home  or  the  city, 
charged  with  the  maintenance  of  the  family 
or  the  State.  Round  the  hearth-fire  gathers 
a  peculiar  sanctity.  There  is  the  common 
centre  of  domestic  interests ;  there,  too,  the 
agent  by  which  gifts  are  conveyed  to  the 
spirits  of  the  dead.  There,  then,  was  a  sacred 
force,  dwelling  in  the  hearth  itself,  and  ani¬ 
mating  the  fire  that  burned  upon  it.  The 
Greek  Hestia  seems  originally  to  have  been 
not  the  goddess  who  made  the  hearth  holy,  nor 
the  sacrificial  fire  which  it  sustained,  but  the 
mysterious  energy  in  the  actual  stones  up¬ 
holding  the  consecrated  flame.  All  kinds  of 
associations  were  attached  to  it ;  and  though 
her  personality  remained  somewhat  dim  and 
indistinct,  and  carven  forms  of  her  were  rare, 
and  her  worship  was  never  sacerdotalised  like 
that  of  the  Latin  Vesta,  she  nevertheless  had 
the  first  place  in  sacrifice  and  prayer.  She 
was  worshipped  in  the  city  council-hall. 
Athenian  colonists  carried  her  sacred  fire 
across  the  seas.  The  poets  provided  her  with 
a  pedigree,  and  made  her  “  sister  of  God  most 
high,  and  of  Hera  the  partner  of  his  throne.” 
The  sculptor  placed  her  statue  at  Athens 
beside  that  of  Peace.  The  family  deity  ex¬ 
panded  into  an  emblem  of  the  unity  of  govern¬ 
ment  and  race.  But  the  primitive  character 
of  the  ancient  hearth-power  still  clung  to  her. 


SPIRITS  AND  GODS 


123 


She  never  rose  into  the  lofty  functions  of 
guide  and  protector  of  moral  order  like  the 
great  eity-gods  Zeus,  Athena,  or  Apollo. 

In  Rome  numerous  powers  were  recognised 
in  early  days  as  guardians  of  the  home  and 
the  farm-lands.  Vesta  had  her  seat  upon  the 
hearth,  which  was  the  centre  of  the  family 
worship,  and  afterwards  became  the  object 
of  an  important  city-cult.  The  store-chamber 
behind  was  the  dwelling-place  of  the  Penates, 
and  with  its  contents  no  impure  person  might 
meddle.  Where  farm  met  farm  stood  the 
chapel  of  the  local  Lares,  and  there  whole 
households  assembled,  masters  and  slaves 
together,  in  annual  rejoicings  and  good 
fellowship.  Brought  into  the  home,  the  Lar 
became  the  symbol  of  the  family  life,  and  the 
ancestral  pieties  gathered  round  him.  More 
vague  and  elastic  was  the  conception  of  the 
Genius,  a  kind  of  spiritual  double  who  watched 
over  the  fortunes  of  the  head  of  the  home,  and 
through  the  marriage -bed  provided  for  the 
continuity  of  descent.  This  protecting  power 
could  take  many  forms  with  continually 
expanding  jurisdiction.  The  city,  the  colony, 
the  province,  the  “land  of  Britain,”  Rome, 
the  Emperor  himself,  were  thus  placed  under 
divine  care,  or  rather  were  viewed  as  in  some 
way  the  organs  of  superhuman  power.  In 
the  energy  which  built  up  states  and  brought 
peoples  into  order  lived  something  that  was 
creative  and  divine. 

From  distant  times  in  many  forms  of  society 


124*  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


it  was  felt  that  there  was  something  mysterious 
in  sovereignty.  The  king  (once  connected 
with  the  priest)  was  hedged  round  with  some 
sort  of  divinity  which  expressed  itself  in 
language  amazing  to  the  modern  mind.  In 
the  ancient  monarchies  of  Egypt  and  Babylon 
the  royal  deity  was  the  fundamental  assump¬ 
tion  of  government,  and  it  was  represented 
upon  the  monuments  beside  the  Nile  with 
startling  realism.  In  later  days  the  Greek 
title  Theos  (god)  was  boldly  assumed  by  the 
sovereigns  of  Egypt  and  Syria.  It  was 
conferred,  with  the  associated  epithet  Soter 
(Saviour  or  Preserver),  as  early  as  307  B.c.,  on 
Demetrius  and  his  father  Antigonus,  who 
liberated  Athens  from  the  tyranny  of  Cas- 
sander.  On  the  Rosetta  stone  (in  the  British 
Museum)  Ptolemy  V,  205  b.c.,  claims  the  same 
dignity,  and  is  described  as  44  eternal-lived,” 
and  44  the  living  image  of  Zeus.”  Ephesus 
designated  Julius  Caesar  as  44  God  manifest 
and  the  common  Saviour  of  human  life.” 

This  is  something  more  than  the  extrava¬ 
gance  of  court -scribes,  or  the  fawning  adulation 
of  oriental  dependents.  In  the  worship  paid 
to  the  Roman  Emperor  many  feelings  and 
associations  were  involved.  The  power  which 
had  brought  peace,  law,  order,  into  the  midst 
of  a  multitude  of  nations  and  languages,  and 
subdued  to  itself  the  jarring  wills  of  men, 
seemed  something  more  than  human.  When 
Tertullian  of  Carthage  coined  the  strange 
word  44  Romanity,”  he  summed  up  the  infinite 


SPIRITS  AND  GODS 


125 


variety  of  energies  which  spread  one  culture 
from  the  Persian  Gulf  to  the  Atlantic,  from 
the  cataracts  of  the  Nile  to  the  sources  of  the 
Tyne.  Of  this  mysterious  force  the  Emperor 
was  the  symbol.  So  Augustus  was  saluted 
throughout  the  East  as  44  Son  of  God,”  and 
in  inscriptions  recently  discovered  in  Asia 
Minor,  and  referred  by  the  historian  Mommsen 
to  the  year  11  or  9  B.c.,  we  read  the  startling 
words  :  44  the  birthday  of  the  God  is  become 
the  beginning  of  glad  tidings  (evangelia x) 
through  him  to  the  world.”  He  is  described 
as  44  the  Saviour  of  the  whole  human  race  ” ; 
he  is  the  beginning  of  life  and  the  end  of  sorrow 
that  ever  man  was  born.  An  inscription  at 
Philse  on  the  Nile  equated  him  with  the 
greatest  of  Greek  deities,  for  he  is  44  star  of  all 
Greece  who  has  arisen  as  great  Saviour  Zeus.” 

This  is  the  most  highly  developed  form  of 
the  doctrine  of  the  divine  king,  which  the 
Far  East  has  retained  for  the  sovereigns  of 
China  and  Japan  to  our  own  day.  The 
language  and  practice  of  Roman  imperialism 
called  forth  the  impassioned  resistance  of  the 
early  Christians,  and  the  clash  of  opposing 
religions  is  nowhere  portrayed  with  more 
desperate  intensity  than  in  the  Book  of 
Revelation  at  the  close  of  our  New  Testament, 
where  Rome  and  her  false  worship  are  identi¬ 
fied  with  the  power  of  the  44  Opposer  ”  or 
Satan,  and  are  hurled  with  all  their  trappings 
of  wealth  and  luxury  into  the  abyss. 

1  The  word  which  designates  our  {<  Gospels.” 


126  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


The  conception  of  a  god  as  “  saviour  ”  or 
deliverer  is  founded  on  incidents  in  personal 
or  national  experience,  when  some  unexpected 
event  opens  a  way  of  escape  from  pressing 
danger.  When  the  Gauls  were  advancing 
against  Rome  in  388  b.c.,  a  strange  voice  of 
warning  was  heard  in  the  street.  It  was 
neglected,  but  when  they  had  been  repelled, 
Camillus  erected  an  altar  and  temple  to  the 
mysterious  “  Speaker,”  Aius  Locutius,  whose 
prophetic  energy  was  thus  manifested.  In 
the  second  Punic  war,  when  the  Carthaginian 
general,  Hannibal,  was  marching  against  the 
city  in  211,  he  suddenly  changed  his  course 
near  the  Capena  gate.  Again  the  might  of 
an  unknown  deity  was  displayed,  and  the 
grateful  Romans  raised  a  shrine  to  him  under 
the  name  of  Tutanus  Rediculus,  the  god  who 
“  protects  and  turns  back.”  It  might  be  the 
attack  of  an  enemy,  it  might  be  the  imminence 
of  shipwreck,  it  might  be  a  desolating  plague, 
or  any  one  of  the  vicissitudes  of  fortune,  the 
distresses  and  anxieties  of  the  soul  or  of  the 
State,  in  the  power  which  brought  rescue  or 
health  or  peace  to  body  or  mind,  or  life  here¬ 
after  in  a  better  world,  the  grateful  believer 
recognised  the  energy  of  some  superhuman 
being.  Just  as  the  making  of  the  world 
required  a  creative  hand,  just  as  the  arts  and 
laws  of  social  life  were  the  product  of  some 
divine  initiative  (p.  171),  just  as  the  higher 
virtues  belonged  to  a  band  of  spiritual  forces 
which  had  a  kind  of  individuality  of  their  own, 


SPIRITS  AND  GODS 


127 


so  the  shaping  of  affairs  bore  witness  to  the 
interest  and  intervention  of  wills  above  those 
of  man.  All  through  the  countries  of  the 
Eastern  Mediterranean  the  greater  deities, 
such  as  Apollo,  Artemis,  Athena,  Aesculapius, 
Dionysus,  Isis,  Zeus,  bore  the  title  of  “  De¬ 
liverer.”  And  in  the  mysteries  which  drew 
so  many  worshippers  to  their  rites  in  the  first 
centuries  of  our  era,  this  deliverance  took  the 
form  of  salvation  from  sin,  and  carried  with 
it  the  promise  of  re-birth  into  eternal  life. 

Similar  conceptions  are  seen  in  India.  The 
founder  of  Buddhism,  Gotama  of  the  Sakyan 
clan,  was  believed  to  have  attained  the  En¬ 
lightenment  which  enabled  him  to  discern  the 
whole  secret  of  existence.  After  a  long  series 
of  preparatory  labours  in  previous  lives  he 
had  appeared  as  a  man  in  his  last  birth,  to 
46  lift  oft  from  the  world  the  veils  of  ignorance 
and  sin.”  He  had  himself  repudiated  all 
ontological  conceptions ;  he  had  explained 
the  human  being  without  the  hypothesis  of 
a  soul  or  self,  and  the  world  without  the  ideas 
of  substance  or  God.  But  in  due  time  the 
rejected  metaphysics  insisted  on  recognition; 
and  some  three  hundred  years  or  more  after 
his  death  a  new  interpretation  of  his  person 
arose.  Under  the  stress  of  pious  affection, 
the  influence  of  philosophical  Brahmanism, 
and  the  need  of  permanent  spiritual  help,  he 
was  conceived  as  a  manifestation  of  the 
Infinite  and  Eternal,  who  for  the  sake  of 
suffering  humanity  from  time  to  time  conde- 


128  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


scended  to  seem  to  be  born  and  die,  that  in 
the  likeness  of  a  man  he  might  impart  the 
saving  truth.  So  he  was  presented  as 
the  Self -Existent,  the  Father  of  the  world,  the 
Protector  of  all  creatures,  the  Healer  of  men’s 
sicknesses  and  sins. 

Over  against  this  great  figure  Brahmanism 
placed  another,  that  of  Vishnu,  with  his  series 
of  46  descents,”  in  which  the  Buddha  was 
formally  incorporated  as  the  ninth.  The  most 
famous  of  these  were  the  heroes  Rama  and 
Krishna ;  and  Krishna  became  the  subject  of 
the  best-known  book  of  Indian  devotion,  the 
Bhagavad-Glta  or  the  44  Divine  Lay,”  which 
has  been  sometimes  supposed  to  show  traces 
of  the  influence  of  the  Gospel  of  St.  John. 
Here  was  a  religion  founded  on  the  idea  of 
divine  grace  or  favour  on  the  one  part,  and 
adoring  love  and  devotion  on  the  other. 
Krishna,  also,  taught  a  way  of  deliverance 
from  the  evils  of  human  passion  and  attach¬ 
ment  to  the  world;  and  Vishnu  came  to  be 
the  embodiment  of  divine  beneficence,  at  once 
the  power  which  maintained  the  universe  and 
revealed  himself  from  time  to  time  to  man. 

Vishnu  was  an  ancient  Vedic  deity 
connected  with  the  sun;  and  by  his  side 
Hindu  theology  set  another  god  of  venerable 
antiquity,  once  fierce  and  destructive,  but 
now  known  under  the  name  of  Qiva,  the 
44  auspicious.”  The  great  epic  entitled  the 
Mahabharata  does  not  conceal  their  rivalry; 
but  with  the  facility  of  identification  charac- 


SPIRITS  AND  GODS 


129 


teristic  of  Indian  thought,  either  deity  could 
be  interpreted  as  a  form  of  the  other.  Civa 
became  the  representative  of  the  energies  of 
dissolution  and  reproduction ;  and  his  worship 
begot  in  the  hearts  of  the  mediaeval  poets  an 
ardent  piety,  while  in  other  aspects  it  de¬ 
generated  into  physical  passion  on  the  one  side 
and  extreme  asceticism  on  the  other.  But  in 
association  with  Brahma,  Vishnu  and  Qiva 
constituted  the  Trimurti,  or  “  triple  form,” 
embracing  the  principles  of  the  creation, 
preservation,  destruction,  and  renewal  of 
the  world.  Symbolised,  like  the  Christian 
Trinity,  by  three  heads  growing  on  one  stem,1 
these  lofty  figures  were  the  personal  manifesta¬ 
tions  of  the  Universal  Spirit,  the  Sole  Exist¬ 
ence,  the  ultimate  Being,  Intelligence,  and 
Bliss. 

By  various  paths  was  the  goal  of  mono¬ 
theism  approached,  but  popular  practice 
perpetually  clung  to  lower  worships,  and 
philosophy  could  often  accommodate  them 
with  ingenious  justifications.  A  bold  and 
decisive  judgment  like  that  of  the  Egyptian 
Akhnaton  might  fix  on  one  of  the  great  powers 
of  nature — the  sun — as  the  most  suitable 
emblem  of  Deity  to  be  adored,  and  forbid 
all  other  cults.  Or  the  various  groups  and 
ranks  of  divine  beings  might  be  addressed  in 
a  kind  of  collective  totality,  like  the  “  all¬ 
gods  ”  of  the  Vedic  hymns.  At  Olympia 

1  Some  of  the  Celtic  deities  are  three-faced,  or  three¬ 
headed. 

I 


130  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


there  was  a  common  altar  for  all  the  gods; 
and  a  frequent  dedication  of  Roman  altars 
in  later  days  consecrated  them  44  to  Jupiter 
Greatest  and  Best,  and  the  Other  Immortal 
Gods.”  If  reflection  was  sufficiently  advanced 
to  coin  abstract  terms  for  deity,  like  the 
Babylonian  ’ iMth ,  or  the  Vedic  asuratva  or 
devatva,  some  poet  might  apprehend  the 
ultimate  unity,  and  lay  it  down  that  44  the 
great  asuratva  of  the  dev  as  is  one.”  Both 
India  and  Greece  reached  the  conception  of 
a  unity  of  energy  in  diversity  of  operation; 
44  the  One  with  many  names  ”  was  the  theme 
of  the  ancient  Hindu  seers  long  before  Aeschy¬ 
lus  in  almost  identical  words  proclaimed 
44  One  form  with  many  names.”  The  great 
sky-god  Zeus,  whose  personality  could  be 
almost  completely  detached  from  the  visible 
firmament,  brought  the  whole  world  under 
his  sway,  and  from  the  fifth  century  before 
Christ  Greek  poetry  abounded  in  lofty  mono¬ 
theistic  language  which  the  early  Christian 
apologists  freely  quoted  in  their  own  defence. 

A  philosophic  sovereign  like  NezahuatJ, 
lord  of  Tezcuco,  might  build  a  temple  to  44  the 
Unknown  God,  the  Cause  of  Causes,”  where 
no  idol  should  be  reared  for  worship,  nor 
any  sacrifice  of  blood  be  offered.  But  other 
motives  were  more  often  at  work.  Conquest 
led  to  the  identification  of  the  deities  of  the 
victor  and  the  vanquished;  and  the  import¬ 
ance  of  military  triumph  enhanced  the  majesty 
of  the  successful  god.  In  his  great  inscription 


SPIRITS  AND  GODS 


131 


on  Mount  Behistun  Darius  celebrated  the 
grandeur  of  Ahura  Mazda,  “  Lord  All -Wise,” 
in  language  resembling  that  of  a  Hebrew 
psalm,  “  A  great  God  is  Ahura  Mazda,  the 
greatest  of  the  gods.”  Under  the  Roman 
Empire  the  principle  of  delegated  authority 
could  be  invoked  to  explain  the  unity  of  the 
Godhead  above  inferior  agencies ;  in  the 
heavenly  order  there  was  but  one  sovereign, 
though  there  were  many  functionaries.  Even 
Israel  had  its  hierarchy  of  ministering  spirits, 
and  the  Synagogue  found  it  necessary  to  forbid 
pious  Jews  to  pray  to  Michael  or  to  Gabriel. 

When  the  unity  of  the  moral  order  was  com¬ 
bined  with  the  unity  of  creative  might,  the 
transition  to  monotheism  was  even  more  com¬ 
plete.  It  could,  indeed,  be  deferred.  In  the 
ancient  poems  of  the  great  religious  reformer 
whom  the  Greeks  called  Zoroaster,  Ahura 
Mazda  is  the  supremely  Good.  Beside  him 
are  the  Immortal  Holy  Ones,  Holy  Spirit, 
Good  Mind,  Righteous  Order,  and  the  rest. 
True,  in  the  oppositions  of  light  and  darkness, 
heat  and  cold,  health  and  sickness,  plenty  and 
want,  life  and  death,  he  is  for  a  time  hampered 
by  the  enmity  of  “  the  Lie  ” ;  but  the  power 
of  evil  would  be  finally  destroyed,  and  the 
sovereignty  of  Ahura  established  for  ever 
(p.  247), 

From  another  point  of  view  the  divine 
purpose  of  deliverance  must  be  conceived 
upon  an  equally  world-wide  scale.  One  type 
of  Indian  Buddhism  looked  to  Avalokite9vara 


132  COMPARAflVE  RELIGION 


(Chinese  Kwanyin,  Japanese  Kwannon),  who 
made  the  famous  vow  not  to  enter  into  final 
peace  until  all  beings — even  the  worst  of 
demons  in  the  lowest  hell — should  know  the 
saving  truth  and  be  converted.  And  in  the 
Far  East  rises  the  figure  of  the  Buddha  of 
Infinite  Light,  who  is  also  the  Buddha  of 
Infinite  Life,  whose  grace  will  avail  for  uni¬ 
versal  redemption  (p.  18).  The  motive  of 
creation  falls  away.  The  world  is  the  scene 
of  the  moral  forces  set  in  motion  under  the 
mysterious  power  of  the  Deed.  No  praise 
rises  to  Amida  for  the  wonders  of  the  universe 
or  the  blessings  of  life.  But  to  no  other  may 
worship  be  offered.  Here  is  a  monotheism 
where  love  reigns  supreme,  and  it  is  content 
to  trust  that  Infinite  Mercy  will  achieve  its 
end. 


CHAPTER  V 

SACRED  ACTS 

One  morning,  Plato  tells  us,  as  Socrates 
was  in  the  Porch  of  the  King  Archon,  he  met 
Euthyphro,  a  learned  Athenian  soothsayer, 
on  his  way  to  accuse  his  father  of  impiety 
for  having  caused  the  death  of  a  slave. 
Socrates,  who  was  also  expecting  an  accusa¬ 
tion  against  himself,  engaged  him  in  a  con¬ 
versation,  as  his  manner  was,  on  the  nature 
of  impiety,  and  its  opposite,  piety.  The  talk 
leads  Euthyphro  to  maintain  that  piety  or 
holiness  consists  in  learning  how  to  please 
the  gods  in  word  and  deed,  by  prayers 
and  sacrifices.  44  Then,”  inquires  Socrates, 
44  sacrifice  is  giving  to  the  gods,  and  prayer 
is  asking  of  the  gods  ?  ”  and  Euthyphro  is 
driven  to  assent  to  the  conclusion  that  piety 
is  an  art  which  gods  and  men  have  of  doing 
business  with  one  another.  It  was  a  satirical 
description  of  the  popular  Greek  view. 

But  the  argument  of  Socrates  really  corre¬ 
sponds  to  world- wide  practice.  However 
dim  and  confused  the  elements  of  belief  may 
be,  every  tribe  has  some  rites  and  ceremonies 
which  express  the  desire  to  get  the  Powers 

133 


134  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


which  encompass  it  upon  its  side.  And  when 
this  desire,  after  many  ineffectual  trials,  has 
succeeded  in  establishing  suitable  methods 
of  approach,  the  endeavours  which  produce 
the  result  tend  to  become  fixed;  they  are 
cherished  from  generation  to  generation ; 
they  form  solemn  customs  which  must  be 
maintained  with  strict  inviolate  order,  even 
though  their  original  meaning  may  have  been 
long  forgotten.  Belief  may  fluctuate  in  a 
kind  of  fluid  medium  of  imagination,  but 
action  cannot  have  this  indeterminate  and 
elastic  character.  Action  is  the  mode  through 
which  feeling  obtains  expression,  while  it 
helps  at  the  same  time  to  intensify  the  emotion 
which  calls  it  forth.  The  rite  must  be  done 
or  omitted;  it  cannot  trail  off  into  shadow 
and  vagueness.  And  it  gathers  the  whole 
weight  of  tribal  sanction  around  it ;  so  that 
even  the  simplest  elements  of  common  usage 
are  moulded  under  the  powerful  pressure  of 
the  46  weight  of  ages.” 

The  active  side  of  religion  may  be  con¬ 
sidered  under  two  aspects.  There  is,  on  the 
one  hand,  the  effort  to  enter  into  helpful 
relations  with  the  energies  which  pervade 
nature  and  operate  on  man.  Such  efforts  spring 
from  manifold  emotions  of  hope  and  fear,  of 
affection*  and  reverence.  They  seek  to  in¬ 
augurate  such  relations ;  to  maintain  them 
through  the  vicissitudes  of  experience,  the 
phases  of  life,  the  sequences  of  time ;  and  to 
renew  them  when  they  have  suffered  sudden 


SACRED  ACTS 


135 


shock  or  gradual  decay.  By  such  action 
the  original  emotion  is  reawakened  when  it 
has  declined,  and  is  raised  to  greater  vividness 
and  higher  tension.  It  may  be  summed  up 
in  the  term  worship,  including  sacrifice  and 
prayer,  often  associated  with  a  wide  range 
of  acts  cognate  in  purpose,  as  well  as  with 
manifold  varieties  of  sacred  persons  and 
sacred  products  (Chap.  VI). 

And,  secondly,  apart  from  public  or  private 
acts  of  homage,  thanksgiving,  submission, 
propitiation,  addressed  specifically  to  the 
higher  Powers,  there  are  modes  of  behaviour 
which  are  believed  to  be  pleasing  or  displeasing 
to  them.  Some  things  may  be  done,  and 
others  may  not.  Certain  acts,  or  words,  or 
even  thoughts,  are  forbidden ;  others  are 
enjoined.  The  sphere  of  daily  conduct  is 
thus  brought  into  connection  with  what  is 
“  above.”  “  Act,”  said  the  Japanese  teacher 
of  Shinto,  Hirata,  in  the  last  century,  “  so 
that  you  shall  not  be  ashamed  before  the 
Kami  ”  (p.  93).  It  was  a  universal  rule. 
Morality  is  thus  placed  under  the  guardian¬ 
ship  of  religion  (Chap.  VII). 

At  the  funeral  of  Lord  Palmerston  (1865), 
the  chief  mourner  was  observed  to  drop 
several  diamond  and  gold  rings  upon  the 
coffin  as  it  was  lowered  into  the  grave.  A 
little  child,  seeing  a  steam-tram  advance  with 
irresistible  might  along  the  road,  offered  it  her 
bun.  It  may  be  surprising  to  meet  with  a  piece 


136  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


of  the  primitive  ritual  of  the  dead  in  the  midst 
of  a  sophisticated  and  conventional  society; 
but  when  strong  feeling  is  excited  something 
must  be  done  to  give  it  relief,  and  in  parting 
with  his  rings  the  donor  found  the  outlet  for  his 
emotion  as  irrationally  as  the  child  before  the 
monster  which  excited  at  once  her  wonder 
and  her  impulse  of  goodwill.  Out  of  such 
impulses  of  self-expression,  it  may  be  sug¬ 
gested,  arises  the  largest  class  of  sacrifices, 
when  gifts  are  made  in  doing  various  kinds 
of  “  business  with  the  gods.” 

In  its  widest  use  the  word  covers  an  exten¬ 
sive  range  of  purposes,  and  begets  a  large 
variety  of  questions.  On  whose  behalf  is 
the  offering  made,  a  single  individual,  or  some 
social  group,  his  family  or  clan,  a  secret  society, 
a  tribe,  a  nation  ?  What  persons  are  required 
for  the  due  performance  of  the  rite,  the  head 
of  the  family,  the  village  magistrate,  the 
fetish  man,  the  priest  ?  A  complicated  Vedic 
sacrifice  needed  the  co-operation  of  various 
orders  of  priests.  What  objects  are  effected 
by  it,  a  house  or  city-gate  to  be  protected, 
a  river  to  be  crossed,  a  battle  to  be  won,  a 
covenant  or  contract  to  be  sealed  ?  To 
what  powers  does  the  worshipper  address 
himself,  in  gratitude,  homage,  or  submission, 
seeking  renewal  of  favour,  or  purging  himself 
of  some  sin,  or  desiring  actual  fellowship  with 
his  god  ?  Behind  these  external  features 
lie  more  difficult  problems  in  connection 
especially  with  animal  sacrifices,  concerned 


SACRED  ACTS 


137 


with  the  victim’s  qualities,  and  the  appro¬ 
priation  of  them  by  the  deity  or  the  worship¬ 
per  ;  with  the  peculiar  sanctity  of  blood,  and 
the  mysterious  properties  which  it  can  impart ; 
with  the  notion  of  the  transmission  of  the  life 
of  which  it  was  the  vehicle ;  and  the  whole 
set  of  indefinite  influences  capable  of  propa¬ 
gation  by  contact,  like  the  clean  and  the  un¬ 
clean,  the  common  and  the  holy.  And  why, 
when  the  victim  was  offered,  was  the  god 
supposed  to  be  satisfied  with  bones  and  en¬ 
trails  and  a  modest  piece  of  meat,  all  wrapped 
in  fat  ?  Greek  wonder  at  so  strange  a  practice 
could  find  no  better  answer  than  the  tale  of 
how  Prometheus  once  cheated  the  gods  of 
their  share,  and  men  had  ever  since  followed 
his  example.  These  questions  belong  to  the 
obscure  realm  of  beginnings,  in  which  various 
answers  are  possible.  All  that  can  be  at¬ 
tempted  here  is  to  offer  a  few  illustrations  of 
the  different  motives  that  seem  to  lie  behind 
different  forms  of  rite. 

Offerings  to  the  dead  pass  through  a  long 
series  of  stages,  from  the  simple  provision  for 
the  wants  of  the  dead  man  in  the  grave  up 
to  his  proper  equipment  with  all  that  is  due 
to  his  rank  and  state  in  the  next  life,  or  the 
maintenance  of  the  ties  of  guardianship  and 
protection  over  unborn  generations.  The 
earliest  human  remains  imply  some  dim  belief 
that  the  grave  was  the  dead  man’s  dwelling 
(p.  J20),  and  there  he  must  be  supplied  with 
the  requisites  for  some  kind  of  continued 


138  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


existence.  All  over  the  world,  food,  weapons, 
ornaments,  utensils,  are  found  deposited  in 
barrow  and  tomb ;  and  this  practice  culmi¬ 
nates  in  the  complicated  arrangements  of 
an  Egyptian  sepulchre,  where  the  wealthy 
landowner  constructed  an  enduring  home 
for  his  double,  and  filled  it  with  representa¬ 
tions  and  objects  which  could  be  magically 
converted  to  his  entertainment  after  death. 

When  the  dead  man  passes  into  another 
world,  and  enters  a  land  resembling  that  which 
he  has  left  (Chap.  VIII),  he  may  need  wives 
and  slaves  appropriate  to  his  rank.  From 
ancient  Japan  and  still  more  ancient  China 
all  round  the  globe  to  Mexico  are  traces  of 
such  ritual  murder.  The  widow’s  self-devo¬ 
tion  was  exalted  in  India  to  religious  duty, 
and  cases  still  occasionally  occur  when  (in 
spite  of  the  British  Government)  she  seeks 
to  mount  the  pyre  and  immolate  herself  beside 
her  husband’s  corpse.  In  West  Africa  the 
ghastly  tale  of  the  Grand  Customs  of  Dahomey 
in  the  last  century  is  well  known;  and  it  is 
supposed  that  thousands  of  lives  are  still 
annually  sacrificed  in  the  Dark  Continent  to 
this  belief.  Other  personal  needs  must  be 
supplied,  and  on  the  Gold  Coast  in  the  last 
century  an  observer  saw  fine  clothes  and  gold 
buried  with  the  chief ;  and  a  flask  of  rum, 
his  pipe  and  tobacco,  were  laid  ready  to  his 
hand.  Moreover,  goods  of  all  kinds  can  be 
made  over  by  fire ;  and  in  the  funeral  rites 
of  a  Chinese  family  a  paper  house  with  paper 


SACRED  ACTS 


139 


furniture  and  large  quantities  of  paper  money 
may  be  burned  for  the  endowment  of  a 
departed  member  in  his  next  life. 

Or  the  offering  may  be  made  for  the  cherish¬ 
ing  of  the  dead  in  their  former  home.  The 
simplest  and  the  most  common  sacrificial 
act  in  Melanesia,  Bishop  Codrington  tells  us, 
is  that  of  throwing  a  small  portion  of  food 
to  the  dead.  It  may  be  nothing  more  than  a 
bit  of  yam  or  a  morsel  of  betel -nut ;  it  is  not 
for  food,  but  for  remembrance  and  affection. 
But  sometimes  it  is  for  actual  nourishment. 
The  dead  in  ancient  India  who  had  none  to 
render  to  them  the  needful  sustenance, 
wandered  as  dismal  ghosts  round  their  former 
dwellings,  or  haunted  the  cross  roads,  com¬ 
pelled  to  feed  themselves  on  the  garbage  of 
the  streets.  The  funeral  meals,  continued 
at  intervals,  were  celebrated  for  the  purpose 
of  providing  the  departed  with  new  forms, 
and  converting  them  into  the  higher  rank  of 
“  Fathers.”  In  many  lands,  from  Europe  to 
Japan  and  Central  America,  an  annual  feast 
for  the  dead  has  been  maintained  in  various 
modes  both  in  classic  antiquity  and  in  modern 
usage ;  and  the  ancient  practice  still  survives 
in  strangely  altered  fashion  in  the  cakes  and 
confectionery  carried  on  All  Souls’  Day  to 
the  graves  in  the  great  Parisian  cemetery  of 
Pere  Lachaise. 

Such  acts  of  recognition  and  fellowship  pass 
through  very  different  stages.  They  begin 
with  a  desire  for  self-identification  with  the 


140  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


mysterious  power  which  helps  or  hurts ;  as 
the  power  is  conceived  on  a  greater  and  more 
personal  scale  they  turn  into  tribute  and 
homage.  The  West  African  negro  passing  a 
big  rock  or  an  unusually  large  tree  will  add 
a  stone  or  bit  of  wood  or  tuft  of  grass  to  the 
little  heap  of  such  trifles  at  its  foot ;  it  is  for 
the  Ombwiri,  or  spirit  of  the  place.  After  the 
harvest  on  the  plateau  of  Lake  Tanganyika, 
pilgrimages  are  made  to  the  mountain  of 
Fwambo-Liamba ;  at  the  top  is  a  sort  of  altar 
of  small  stones,  and  there  scraps  of  calico, 
bits  of  wood,  flowers,  beads,  are  laid  in  honour 
of  a  vague  44  High  God  ”  called  Lesa.  The 
nature  of  such  gifts  may  be  traced  through 
all  gradations  of  economic  advance,  just  as  the 
mode  of  conveying  it  passes  through  various 
phases  from  the  coarse  to  the  refined.  The 
pastoral  nomad  brings  the  firstling  of  his 
flocks;  the  more  advanced  agriculturist  adds 
the  produce  of  the  ground.  The  immigrant 
Hebrew  under  Canaanite  tuition  adopted  the 
festivals  of  harvest  and  vintage,  and  with 
firstlings  and  tithes  wrought  his  husbandry 
into  his  religion  when  he  went  to  the  sanctuary 
44  to  see  Yahweh’s  face.”  The  daily  sacrifice 
in  the  great  temple  of  Marduk  at  Babylon 
under  Nebuchadrezzar  was  an  epitome  of 
the  whole  tillage  of  the  land;  the  choicest 
fruits,  the  finest  produce  of  the  meadow,  honey, 
cream,  oil,  wine  of  different  vintages,  must 
be  served.  In  the  early  ritual  of  an  Egyptian 
temple,  when  the  daily  toilet  of  the  god  had 


SACRED  ACTS 


141 


been  performed  and  he  had  been  duly  robed, 
painted,  and  oiled,  his  table  was  spread  with 
bread,  goose,  beef,  wine,  and  water,  and  deco¬ 
rated  with  the  flowers  needed  to  adorn  a 
meal. 

In  many  cases  such  offerings  carried  with 
them  the  additional  purpose  of  actually 
increasing  the  vigour  of  the  god.  Dim  no¬ 
tions  of  promoting  the  divine  vitality  hovered 
in  the  background.  The  physical  effect  might 
be  reached  by  divers  modes.  Food  was  at 
first  conveyed  by  actual  contact ;  it  might 
be  smeared  upon  the  idol’s  mouth.  Offerings 
to  earth  spirits  were  buried  in  the  ground. 
Water  deities  received  them  when  they  were 
thrown  into  the  well,  the  river,  or  the  lake. 
Even  in  Greece  Poseidon’s  horses  were  driven 
into  the  sea,  just  as  the  horses  of  the  defeated 
Mallius  were  offered  by  the  Gallic  victors 
to  the  Rhine.  Indian  realism  provided  the 
Fathers  who  assembled  for  the  rice-ball  sacri¬ 
fice  with  water  and  tufts  of  wool  to  cleanse 
themselves  after  the  meal.  In  more  refined 
usage  fire  conveyed  the  essence  of  the  food 
to  the  upper  airs.  At  Noah’s  sacrifice  on  the 
subsidence  of  the  flood  Yahweh  smelt  the 
sweet  savour,  and  in  the  corresponding  Baby¬ 
lonian  narrative  the  gods,  drawn  by  the  scent, 
gathered  together  around  the  offerer  “  like 
flies.”  The  American  Osages  invited  the 
Great  Spirit,  Fire,  and  Earth,  to  smoke  with 
them  at  the  beginning  of  a  new  enterprise.  The 
Sioux  lighted  the  pipe  of  peace  and  offered  it 


142  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


to  the  sun,  with  the  invocation,  46  Smoke,  O 
Sun.” 

Many  and  various  are  the  ideals  which 
have  gathered  round  the  offering,  as  magic 
and  religion  have  strangely  blended.  The 
sacred  tree,  whether  among  the  Celts  of  the 
West  or  the  Syrians  of  the  East,  is  hung  with 
rags  of  clothing,  sometimes  doubtless  with 
the  same  motive  which  prompts  similar  gifts 
at  the  tomb  of  a  Mohammedan  saint,  for  the 
transference  of  diseases  from  the  sick.  The 
highest  value  was  reached  among  the  ancient 
Irish,  as  among  the  Semites,  in  the  sacrifice 
of  the  first-born ;  and  the  long  tale  of  human 
victims  indicates  man’s  passionate  desire 
to  secure  in  divers  forms  supernatural  aid. 
They  have  been  slain  in  crises  of  national 
danger  by  plague  or  war,  in  atonement  for  sin,1 
or  in  thanksgiving  for  victory.  They  have 
been  immured  in  the  foundations  of  houses 
or  cities  that  their  spirits  might  remain  as 
guardians  of  the  gates.  They  have  been  done 
to  death  in  the  seasons  of  the  agricultural 
year  that  their  lives  might  fertilise  the  soil 
and  quicken  the  grain.  They  have  been 
forced  to  yield  their  entrails  to  the  diviner 
that  the  secrets  of  the  future  might  be  unveiled. 

Brahmanical  speculation  carried  the  ideas 
of  sympathetic  magic  in  association  with 
sacrifice  to  their  highest  pitch.  The  Vedic 
hymns  early  formulated  the  idea  of  reciprocal 

1  The  sacrifices  of  purification  and  atonement  are  briefly 
considered  in  Chapter  VII. 


SACRED  ACTS 


143 


obligation  in  the  crudest  terms :  Dehi  me, 
dadami  te — 44  Give  to  me,  I  give  to  thee.” 
But  this  simple  relation  was  superseded  in 
the  priestly  ceremonial  by  elaborate  parallels 
between  the  daily  order  of  the  ritual  and  the 
daily  order  of  the  skies.  The  earthly  sacri¬ 
fices  were  the  counterparts  of  those  offered 
by  celestial  priests.  The  44  Fathers  ”  accom¬ 
plished  the  rising  of  the  sun;  and  when  the 
heavenly  process  was  imitated  in  the  world 
below,  the  kindling  of  the  sacred  fire  came 
to  be  regarded  as  the  actual  instrument  for 
stimulating  and  maintaining  the  activities 
above.  From  a  yet  higher  point  of  view  the 
whole  world  had  issued  from  the  mysterious 
sacrifice  of  a  cosmic  Man  (described  in  one 
of  the  latest  hymns  of  the  Rig- Veda),  out  of 
whose  person  the  visible  universe,  the  Veda,  and 
the  human  race  in  four  castes,  had  been  created. 
In  the  Brahmanical  theology  his  place  was 
taken  by  Prajapati,  the  “  Lord  of  Creatures,” 
who  underwent  repeated  offering  in  every 
sacrifice.  And  just  as  the  primeval  sacrifice 
effected  the  generation  of  the  world,  so  every 
fresh  oblation  was  a  miniature  reproduction 
of  the  cosmic  event.  The  Lord  who  had  been 
dismembered  must  be  reconstituted  that  he 
might  offer  himself  anew;  and  thus  sacrifice 
was  blended  with  the  course  of  Time  and  the 
period  of  the  Year,  and  the  perpetual  dissolu¬ 
tion  and  renewal  of  the  life  that  animated 
the  mighty  frame  of  earth  and  heaven.  In 
that  upper  world,  moreover,  the  sacrificer, 


142  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


to  the  sun,  with  the  invocation,  44  Smoke,  O 
Sun.” 

Many  and  various  are  the  ideals  which 
have  gathered  round  the  offering,  as  magic 
and  religion  have  strangely  blended.  The 
sacred  tree,  whether  among  the  Celts  of  the 
West  or  the  Syrians  of  the  East,  is  hung  with 
rags  of  clothing,  sometimes  doubtless  with 
the  same  motive  which  prompts  similar  gifts 
at  the  tomb  of  a  Mohammedan  saint,  for  the 
transference  of  diseases  from  the  sick.  The 
highest  value  was  reached  among  the  ancient 
Irish,  as  among  the  Semites,  in  the  sacrifice 
of  the  first-born ;  and  the  long  tale  of  human 
victims  indicates  man’s  passionate  desire 
to  secure  in  divers  forms  supernatural  aid. 
They  have  been  slain  in  crises  of  national 
danger  by  plague  or  war,  in  atonement  for  sin,1 
or  in  thanksgiving  for  victory.  They  have 
been  immured  in  the  foundations  of  houses 
or  cities  that  their  spirits  might  remain  as 
guardians  of  the  gates.  They  have  been  done 
to  death  in  the  seasons  of  the  agricultural 
year  that  their  lives  might  fertilise  the  soil 
and  quicken  the  grain.  They  have  been 
forced  to  yield  their  entrails  to  the  diviner 
that  the  secrets  of  the  future  might  be  unveiled. 

Brahmanical  speculation  carried  the  ideas 
of  sympathetic  magic  in  association  with 
sacrifice  to  their  highest  pitch.  The  Vedic 
hymns  early  formulated  the  idea  of  reciprocal 

1  The  sacrifices  of  purification  and  atonement  are  briefly 
considered  in  Chapter  VII. 


SACRED  ACTS 


143 


obligation  in  the  crudest  terms :  Belli  me, 
dadami  te — 44  Give  to  me,  I  give  to  thee.” 
But  this  simple  relation  was  superseded  in 
the  priestly  ceremonial  by  elaborate  parallels 
between  the  daily  order  of  the  ritual  and  the 
daily  order  of  the  skies.  The  earthly  sacri¬ 
fices  were  the  counterparts  of  those  offered 
by  celestial  priests.  The  44  Fathers  ”  accom¬ 
plished  the  rising  of  the  sun;  and  when  the 
heavenly  process  was  imitated  in  the  world 
below,  the  kindling  of  the  sacred  fire  came 
to  be  regarded  as  the  actual  instrument  for 
stimulating  and  maintaining  the  activities 
above.  From  a  yet  higher  point  of  view  the 
whole  world  had  issued  from  the  mysterious 
sacrifice  of  a  cosmic  Man  (described  in  one 
of  the  latest  hymns  of  the  Rig- Veda),  out  of 
whose  person  the  visible  universe,  the  Veda,  and 
the  human  race  in  four  castes,  had  been  created. 
In  the  Brahmanical  theology  his  place  was 
taken  by  Prajapati,  the  “  Lord  of  Creatures,” 
who  underwent  repeated  offering  in  every 
sacrifice.  And  just  as  the  primeval  sacrifice 
effected  the  generation  of  the  world,  so  every 
fresh  oblation  was  a  miniature  reproduction 
of  the  cosmic  event.  The  Lord  who  had  been 
dismembered  must  be  reconstituted  that  he 
might  offer  himself  anew;  and  thus  sacrifice 
was  blended  with  the  course  of  Time  and  the 
period  of  the  Year,  and  the  perpetual  dissolu¬ 
tion  and  renewal  of  the  life  that  animated 
the  mighty  frame  of  earth  and  heaven.  In 
that  upper  world,  moreover,  the  sacrificer, 


144  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


through  mystical  identification  with  Prajapati, 
was  enabled  to  prepare  a  new  body  for  the 
celestial  abode,  and  out  of  the  altar-ground 
below  to  generate  his  future  divine  self  in  the 
world  above. 

Along  other  lines  the  conception  of  fellow¬ 
ship  with  Deity  may  be  realised  through  a 
common  act.  Above  the  personal  fetish  of 
a  Gold  Coast  negro  to  which  he  made  offerings 
of  rum  and  palm- wine,  oil,  corn,  sheep,  goats, 
stood  the  patron  god  of  the  family.  Before 
a  separation  which  would  prevent  them  from 
ever  again  worshipping  together,  they  engaged 
in  a  strange  kind  of  communion.  The  fetish- 
priest  pounded  up  some  sacred  substance 
and  mixed  it  with  water,  which  was  then 
drunk  by  the  whole  family  in  turn.  During 
the  rite  the  priest  enjoined  all  present  in  the 
name  of  the  deity  to  abstain  from  some 
particular  kind  of  food,  fish,  beef,  fowl,  milk, 
or  other  article  of  diet.  None  of  the  com¬ 
pany  tasted  it  again.  They  were  united  by 
the  deity  within  them ;  and  obedience  to  his 
command  bound  them,  however  far  apart,  in 
common  worship. 

Sometimes  the  worshipper  sat  at  the  table 
of  the  god,  who  was  in  some  sense  present  at 
the  meal  celebrated  in  his  honour.  In  the 
usage  of  ancient  Israel  the  householder  shared 
with  his  family,  kinsmen,  neighbours,  and 
guests,  in  the  sacred  feast  44  before  Yahweh.” 
How  far  the  belief  in  Yahweh’s  presence  was 
actually  cherished  by  the  participants  cannot 


SACRED  ACTS 


145 


be  definitely  affirmed ;  it  does  not  appear,  for 
instance,  in  the  Babylonian  ritual.  But  a 
corresponding  idea  may  certainly  be  traced 
in  Greece  and  Rome.  From  the  early  cult 
of  the  sacred  stone  or  pillar  as  the  abode  of 
deity,  some  kind  of  divine  power  inhered  in 
the  altar  and  the  image ;  and  when  the  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  clan  feasted  together  on  solemn 
occasions,  the  clan-god  was  present  with  his 
worshippers.  The  Greek  ritual  sometimes 
provided  a  place  for  the  table -companions  or 
“parasites,”  at  sacred  banquets,  such  as  were 
held  in  the  temples  of  Apollo  at  Acharnae  or 
Delos. 

An  inscription  at  Magnesia  describes  a 
festival  of  twelve  gods,  whose  images,  adorned 
with  festal  array,  were  carried  into  the  market¬ 
place,  and  arranged  on  three  cushions  under 
a  canopy.  When  sacrifices  had  been  offered, 
the  priests  and  people  partook  of  a  common 
meal  with  the  gods.  The  old  Latins  and  other 
Italians  believed  the  deities  of  the  house  to 
be  present  at  their  meals.  The  Penates,  Mr. 
Warde  Fowler  tells  us,  were  the  spirits  of  the 
foods.  Rome  celebrated  its  solemn  feast  of 
Jove  in  the  Capitoline  temple  every  Sep¬ 
tember  on  full -moon  day,  when  Jupiter,  with 
his  face  painted  red,  Juno,  and  Minerva, 
were  present  in  their  statues  to  share  the  meal 
with  the  magistrates .  and  Senate  of  the  city. 
To  46  lay  a  couch  for  the  god  ”  (as  we  might 
say  44  to  lay  a  table  ”)  was  a  common  phrase. 
Recently  discovered  papyri,  illustrating  so 
K 


146  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


many  aspects  of  daily  life  in  the  Eastern 
Mediterranean,  show  that  such  hospitalities 
were  of  frequent  occurrence,  alike  in  temples 
and  in  private  houses.  Among  the  precious 
remains  from  Oxyrhynchus  are  such  notes 
as  this  :  “  Antonius  son  of  Ptolemaeus  invites 
you  to  dine  with  him  at  the  table  of  our  Lord 
Sarapis  in  the  house  of  Claudius  Sarapion  on 
the  16th  at  9  o’clock.” 

But  the  worshipper  might  not  only  eat 
with  the  god,  he  might  more  rarely,  and  under 
special  circumstances,  even  eat  him .  A  more 
intimate  union  was  thus  effected.  When 
the  altar  imparted  its  sanctity  to  the  victim 
laid  upon  it,  the  holy  food  distributed  to  the 
worshipper  had  some  kind  of  divine  presence 
in  it,  and  virtue  passed  through  the  meat 
into  the  eater.  The  late  Prof.  Robertson 
Smith,  in  his  famous  lectures  on  “  the  Religion 
of  the  Semites,”  endeavoured  to  show  that 
sacrifice  originally  consisted  in  slaying  the 
animal  of  the  totem-group,  of  which  members 
of  the  totem-kin  partook  so  that  they  received 
into  their  own  persons  the  divine  power  incar¬ 
nated  in  the  totem  animal.  Further  research 
has  failed  to  confirm  this  view;  but  a  similar 
conception  has  been  illustrated  from  another 
side.  The  agricultural  usages  of  which  Dr. 
Frazer  has  collected  so  many  examples,  show 
how  out  of  the  last  sheaf , which  had  become  the 
home  of  the  corn-spirit,  the  grain  was  baked  in 
human  form  as  its  embodiment,  and  solemnly 
eaten.  In  the  East  Indian  archipelago,  on 


SACRED  ACTS 


147 


the  island  of  Buro,  the  approaching  rice- 
harvest  was  welcomed  by  a  tribal  meeting 
when  each  man  brought  some  first-fruits  from 
the  fields,  and  the  meal  of  inauguration  was 
known  as  44  eating  the  soul  of  the  rice.” 

Twice  a  year  was  the  great  Mexican  deity 
Huitzilopochtli  presented  in  the  form  of  dough 
images  to  his  worshippers,  and  with  elaborate 
ceremonies  was  consumed.  Tezcatlipoca,  in 
like  manner,  chief  god  of  the  Aztecs,  repre¬ 
sented  by  a  handsome  and  noble  captive 
wearing  the  divine  emblems,  was  slain  on  the 
great  altar ;  the  body  of  the  victim  was 
respectfully  carried  down  into  the  court  below, 
divided  into  small  pieces,  and  distributed 
among  priests  and  nobles  as  blessed  food. 
It  is  strange  to  find  such  savagery  associated 
with  prayers  of  exalted  fervour  and  devotion. 
But  ecstasy  is  roused  by  various  means,  and 
is  not  affronted  at  the  most  brutal  rites. 
There  were  incidents  in  the  Orphic  cult  of  the 
Thracian  Dionysus  grouped  under  the  name 
of  the  44  Omophagy  ”  (literally  44  raw-eating  ”) 
of  like  character.  In  frenzied  excitement  the 
devotees  flung  themselves  on  bull  or  goat, 
rent  it  asunder,  and  devoured  the  bleeding 
flesh.  Such  was  the  condition  of  securing 
the  actual  entry  of  the  god  into  the  believer’s 
person,  so  that  he  became  entheos ,  44  with  the 
god  inside  him.”  Words  have  strange  his¬ 
tories,  and  few  now  remember,  when  they 
describe  the  welcome  of  a  monarch  by  acclaim¬ 
ing  crowds,  or  the  excitement  roused  by  a 

K  2 


148  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


great  orator,  what  was  the  earlier  meaning 
of  44  enthusiasm.” 

In  the  “art  which  gods  and  men  have  of  doing 
business  with  each  other,”  Socrates  associated 
sacrifice  with  prayer  (p.  133).  The  association 
is  world -wide,  and  here  religion  reaches  its 
utmost  inwardness.  The  feeling  which  ex¬ 
presses  itself  in  action  will  also  prompt  gesture 
and  speech ;  rude  rhythms  mould  words  into 
chant  and  song;  and  even  without  a  definite 
object  of  address  some  utterance  breathes  a 
desire.  44  May  it  be  well  with  the  buffaloes, 
may  they  not  suffer  from  disease  and  die  .  .  . 
may  there  be  water  and  grass  in  plenty.” 
So  runs  the  dairy-ritual  of  the  Indian  Todas, 
without  the  direct  invocation  of  any  gods. 
But  there  is  no  element  here  of  compul¬ 
sion  or  constraint.  The  distinction  between 
prayer  and  spell  is  clear;  the  attitude  is 
religious,  not  magical.  On  the  other  hand, 
sacrifices  are  sometimes  offered  to  a  44  High 
God,”  as  by  the  Dinkas  of  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal 
in.  Central  Africa  to  Deng-deet,  who  is  de¬ 
scribed  as  44  Ruler  of  the  universe,  Creator 
of  mankind,  the  actual  Father  of  human 
beings  ” ;  but,  adds  Captain  Cummins,  44 1 
imagine  it  does  not  occur  to  them  to  pray.” 
Others,  by  contrast,  make  morning  and  evening 
prayer  part  of  their  daily  practice ;  the  Nandi 
of  East  Africa  concludes  his  devotions 
(addressed  to  Asista,  the  ordinary  word  for 
the  sun) :  44 1  have  prayed  to  thee,  thou 


SACRED  ACTS 


149 


sleepest  and  thou  goest,  I  have  prayed  to  thee, 
do  not  say  ‘  I  am  tired.’  ”  Sometimes  prayer 
is  offered  only  to  the  powers  of  mischief. 
The  Lepchas  of  the  Himalayas  told  Dr.  Hooker 
that  they  did  not  pray  to  the  good  spirits. 
64  Why  should  we  ?  They  do  us  no  harm ; 
the  evil  spirits  that  dwell  in  every  grove'  and 
rock  and  mountain,  to  them  we  must  pray, 
for  they  hurt  us.”  To  the  Australian  it  may 
seem  foolishness  to  address  Baiame  from  day 
to  day  :  he  knows,  why  weary  him  by  repeti¬ 
tions,  disturbing  his  rest  after  his  earthly 
labours  ?  But  the  impulse  of  prayer  does  not 
always  take  articulate  form,  any  more  than 
it  always  seeks  a  personal  object ;  and  after 
long  residence  among  the  Euahlayi  in  South 
East  Australia  Mrs.  Langloh  Parker  pleaded 
that  the  man  who  invoked  aid  in  his  hour  of 
danger,  or  the  woman  who  crooned  over  her 
babe  an  incantation  to  keep  him  honest  and 
true,  shared,  however  dimly,  the  same  spirit 
of  devotion  which  elsewhere  prompts  elabo¬ 
rate  litanies.  It  is  with  a  pious  reserve  that 
the  Khonds  of  Orissa  pray  :  “  We  are  ignorant 
of  what  it  is  good  for  us  to  ask  for.  You 
know  what  is  good  for  us;  give  it  to  us.” 

Prayer  in  the  lower  culture  is  rarely  in¬ 
dividualised.  It  is  almost  always  a  social 
act.  Common  prayers  for  food  or  rain,  for 
protection  against  danger,  the  removal  of 
pestilence,  victory  over  enemies,  represent 
the  wants  of  all.  The  group  may  be  the 
family,  as  in  the  evening  worship  of  the 


150  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


Samoan  householder,  who  pours  a  little  of  his 
cup  of  ava  on  the  ground,  and  prays  for 
health,  productive  plantations,  and  plenty  of 
fruit.  On  the  Lower  Niger  Major  Leonard 
found  worship  offered  daily  before  an  image 
or  emblem  believed  to  contain  the  spirits 
of  more  immediate  ancestors  :  4  4  Preserve 
our  lives,  O  Spirit  Father,  who  hast  gone 
before,  and  make  thy  house  fruitful,  so  that 
we  thy  children  shall  increase  and  multiply 
and  so  grow  rich  and  powerful.” 

Such  prayers  may  be  traced  through  many 
expanding  phases  up  to  the  higher  petitions 
which  seek  to  place  the  civic  and  moral  life 
under  the  guidance  of  the  heroic  dead.  The 
element  of  bargain  or  contract  which  Socrates 
so  sarcastically  emphasised,  here  drops  away. 
44  To  what  god  or  what  hero  shall  we  pray,” 
inquired  the  people  of  Corcjrra,  weary  of 
internal  strife,  at  the  oracle  of  Dodona,  44  in 
order  to  obtain  concord,  and  to  govern  our 
city  fairly  and  well  ?  ”  Chinese  statecraft 
well  understood  the  significance  of  such  wor¬ 
ship  as  a  social  bond.  The  ancient  author  of 
the  Li  Chi,  or  44  Book  of  Rites,”  laid  it.  down 
that  44  the  prayers  of  the  principal  in  the 
sacrifice  to  the  spirits,  and  the  benedictions 
of  the  representatives  of  the  departed,  are 
carefully  framed.  The  object  of  all  cere¬ 
monies  is  to  bring  down  the  spirits  from  above, 
even  their  ancestors;  serving  also  to  rectify 
the  relations  between  ruler  and  minister,  to 
maintain  the  generous  feeling  between  father 


SACRED  ACTS 


151 


and  son,  and  the  harmony  between  elder  and 
younger  brother,  to  adjust  the  relations 
between  high  and  low,  and  to  give  their  proper 
places  to  husband  and  wife.  The  whole  may 
be  said  to  secure  the  blessing  of  Heaven.” 

Attention  is  thus  concentrated  upon  com¬ 
mon  sentiments  and  universal  relationships, 
and  prayer  acquires  a  deeper  ethical  meaning. 
It  then  comes  to  rest  upon  devout  experience, 
which  seeks  to  interpret  life  in  relation  to 
the  permanent  forces  of  justice  which  are 
believed  to  rule  the  world.  The  hymns  of 
Egypt  celebrate  in  lofty  terms  the  majesty 
and  beneficence  of  the  gods,  and  the  psalmists 
of  the  Nile  sang  of  the  divine  love  encom¬ 
passing  all  lands,  setting  every  man  in  his 
place,  and  amid  diversities  of  colour  and 
speech  supplying  all  human  needs.  The 
Babylonian  poets  addressed  Shamash  or  Sin, 
sun  or  moon,  as  the  symbols  of  the  universal 
order  of  nature,  the  witnesses  of  thought 
and  deed  over  the  wide  earth,  the  rulers  on 
whom  man  could  place  unchanging  reliance. 
The  Vedic  singer  found  a  similar  figure  of 
moral  sovereignty  in  Varuna  (p.  106).  Out 
of  the  depths  of  her  distress  Hecuba  (in  the 
44  Trojan#  Women  ”)  appeals  to  the  mysterious 
Power  whom  she  can  still  glorify  in  her 
anguish  :  46  Thou  deep  base  of  the  world,  and 
thou  high  throne  above  the  world,  whoe’er 
thou  art,  unknown  and  hard  of  surmise,  chain 
of  things  to  be,  or* reason  of  bur  reason,  God, 
to  thee  I  lift  my  praise,  seeing  the  silent  road 


152  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


that  bringeth  justice  ere  the  end  be  trod  to 
all  that  breathes  and  dies.”  With  a  yet 
firmer  confidence  could  the  Peruvian  in  the 
sixteenth  century  record  this  prayer  to  the 
44  World-animating  Spirit  ”  :  44  O  Pachacamac, 
thou  who  hast  existed  from  the  beginning, 
and  shalt  exist  unto  the  end,  who  createst 
man  by  saying  44  Let  man  be,”  who  defendest 
us  from  evil,  and  preservest  our  life  and" health, 
art  thou  in  the  sky  or  in  the  earth,  in  the 
clouds  or  in  the  depths  ?  Hear  the  voice  of 
him  who  implores  thee,  and  grant  him  his 
petitions.  Give  us  life  everlasting;  preserve 
us,  and  accept  this  our  sacrifice.” 

Two  or  three  thousand  years  before,  the 
pious  Egyptian  had  been  bidden  to  enter 
quietly  into  the  sanctuary  of  God,  to  whom 
clamour  is  abhorrent.  4 4  Pray  to  him  with  a 
longing  heart  in  which  all  thy  words  are  hidden, 
so  will  he  grant  thy  request,  and  hear  that 
which  thou  sayest  and  accept  thy  offering.” 
Dear  was  this  silent  worship  to  the  higher 
teachers.  A  hymn  to  Thoth  (p.  8)  addresses 
him  as  44  Thou  sweet  spring  for  the  thirsty  in 
the  desert,”  adding,  44  It  is  closed  for  those  who 
speak  there,  it  is  open  for  those  who  keep 
silence  there.  When  the  silent  man  cometh, 
he  findeth  the  spring.” 

Petitions  such  as  these,  rooted  in  ethical  senti¬ 
ment,  demand  as  their  moral  condition  purity 
of  heart  and  concentration  of  thought.  The 
prophets  of  all  ages  have  protested  against 
formalism  and  insincerity.  The  Japanese 


SACRED  ACTS 


153 


god  of  learning,  Temmangu,  was  once  a 
distinguished  statesman.  But  he  fell  into 
unmerited  disgrace  (a.d.  901),  and  was  ban¬ 
ished.  Posthumously  vindicated,  he  was  pro¬ 
moted  to  the  rank  of  deity,  and  declared 
through  his  oracle,  44  All  ye  who  come  before 
me  hoping  to  attain  the  accomplishment  of 
your  desires,  pray  with  hearts  pure  from 
falsehood,  clean  within  and  without,  reflecting 
the  truth  like  a  mirror.”  The  disposition  of 
prayer  must  be  that  of  life  also.  It  was  with 
reference  to  similar  slander  to  that  from 
which  Temmangu  had  suffered,  that  Pindar 
cried,  44  Never  be  this  mind  in  me,  O  Father 
Zeus,  but  to  the  paths  of  simplicity  let  me 
cleave  throughout  my  life,  that  when  dead 
I  may  set  upon  my  children  a  name  that 
shall  be  of  no  ill  repute.”  And  Socrates  prays, 
as  he  and  Phsedrus  rise  from  the  shade  of  the 
plane-tree  where  they  have  been  talking, 
44  Beloved  Pan,  and  all  ye  other  gods  that 
haunt  this  place,  give  me  beauty  in  the 
inward  soul,  and  may  the  outward  and  the 
inward  man  be  at  one  ”  :  to  which  Phsedrus 
adds,  44  Ask  the  same  for  me,  for  friends 
should  have  all  things  in  common.” 

The  need  of  righteousness  begets  penitence 
and  confession.  A  Buddhist  liturgy  issued 
in  China  in  1412  with  a  preface  by  the  Emperor 
Yung  Loh  of  the  Ming  dynasty,  after  the 
opening  invocations,  proceeded  thus  :  44  We 
and  all  men  from  the  very  first,  by  reason  of 
the  grievous  sins  we  have  committed  in 


156  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


we  have  sinned  against  you  ”  :  44  Before  this 
Varuna  (p.  106)  may  we  be  sinless,  him  who 
shows  mercy  even  to  the  sinner.” 

With  the  development  of  Brahmanical 
speculation  prayer  rises  to  more  abstract 
ideas :  44  Lead  me  from  darkness  to  light, 
from  falsehood  to  truth,  from  death  to  the 
deathless.”  The  association  of  prayer  and 
magic  is  seen  in  the  fact  that  the  very  term 
brahma  has  the  double  meaning  of  prayer 
and  spell,  something  like  the  Greek  euche  or 
the  Hebrew  44  bless,”  which  could  imply  a 
curse  as  well  as  a  prayer.  But  in  its  higher 
sense  it  gave  birth  to  the  44  Lord  of  Prayer,” 
Brahmanaspati,  a  kind  of  house -priest  of  the 
gods,  a  heavenly  personification  of  the  priest¬ 
hood  on  earth,  in  whom  resided  the  power  of 
influencing  events  by  prayer  and  incantation. 
Nay,  just  as  the  hymns  came  to  be  regarded 
as  originally  existing  in  the  realm  of  the 
infinite  and  the  undying  (p.  12),  so  prayer 
was  said  to  have  been  born  of  yore  in  heaven. 
And  thus  the  Lord  of  Prayer  acquires  a 
more  lofty  character  as  its  generator  and 
inspirer ;  he  is  even  called  the  44  Father  of  the 
gods  ” ;  and  the  very  universe  depends  upon 
him,  for  he  holds  asunder  the  ends  of  the 
earth.  In  the  shining  company  of  deities, 
moreover,  stand  Sacred  Speech,  and  Devotion, 
and  Lovely  Praise,  and  Holy  Thought,  with 
others  of  the  goodly  fellowship  of  Prayer,  to 
attest  its  power,  and  approve  its  worth. 

The  subsequent  devotion  of  India  aspires 


SACRED  ACTS 


157 


by  different  paths  to  reach  communion  with 
the  Infinite  Spirit  or  Universal  Self.  The 
supreme  reality  is  presented  in  the  triple 
aspects  of  Being,  Thought,  and  Bliss  ( saccid - 
ananda).  To  know  him  alone  as  the  Self 
of  all  selves,  is  the  goal  rather  of  meditation 
than  of  prayer.  Existence,  understanding, 
and  joy,  these  are  the  ultimates  of  all  experi¬ 
ence,  and  he  who  has  attained  them  prays 
no  more  :  44  Seeking  for  emancipation  I  go 
for  refuge  to  that  God  who  is  the  guiding 
light  to  the  understanding  of  all  souls.”  This 
is  the  note  of  much  of  the  later  mystical  piety 
of  Hinduism.  It  speaks  in  the  language 
both  of  religion  and  of  philosophy. 

In  the  first,  the  believer  looks  to  his 
heavenly  Lord  with  adoring  faith  (p.  128) 
and  lowly  love  ( bhakti ),  and  feels  the  inflowing 
of  divine  favour  or  grace  (prascida).  The 
long  line  of  mediaeval  poets  transmitted  from 
generation  to  generation  passionate  impulses 
of  devotion  which  expressed  themselves  again 
and  again  in  legend  and  song.  44  Search  in  thy 
heart,”  pleaded  the  weaver  Kabir  in  the 
fifteenth  century,  44  search  in  thy  heart  of 
hearts,  there  is  God’s  place  of  abode.”  Not, 
however,  without  conditions  :  44  Unless  you 
have  a  forgiving  spirit,  you  will  not  see  God.” 
He  might  describe  himself  in  his  humility  as 
44  the  worst  of  men  ” ;  that  only  made  the 
marvel  of  divine  grace  more  wonderful  :  44 1 
am  thy  son;  Thou  art  my  Father;  we  both 
live  in  the  same  place.” 


158  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


On  the  philosophical  side  a  modern  manual 
of  Hindu  practice  endeavours  to  combine 
religion  ancl  metaphysics.  Ere  the  believer 
rises  from  bed  in  the  morning  he  should 
confess  his  unworthiness  :  “  O  Lord  of  the 
universe,  O  All-Consciousness,  presiding  Deity 
of  all,  Vishnu,  at  thy  bidding,  and  to  please 
thee  alone,  I  rise  this  morning,  and  enter  on 
the  discharge  of  my  daily  duties.  I  know 
what  is  righteous,  yet  I  feel  no  attraction  for 
it;  I  know  what  is  not  righteous,  yet  I  have 
no  repulsion  from  it.  O  Lord  of  the  senses, 
O  Thou  seated  in  the  heart,  may  I  do  thy 
commands  as  ordered  by  thee  in  my  con¬ 
science.”  But  in  order  to  remind  him  of  his 
divine  origin,  in  this  age  of  sordid  interests 
and  low  ideals,  he  is  enjoined  also  to  look  upon 
himself  as  the  reflected  image  of  God,  the 
Eternal,  the  All-Knowing,  the  All-Glad,  and 
to  recite  the  ancient  verse,  “  I  am  divine  and 
not  anything  else,  I  am  indeed  Brahma  above 
all  sorrows,  my  form  is  Being,  Intelligence, 
and  Bliss,  and  eternally  free  is  my  nature.” 

The  duties  of  offering  and  prayer  may  be 
performed  from  day  to  day,  or  they  may  be 
reserved  for  special  occasions  of  enterprise, 
danger,  and  thanksgiving.  They  mark  the 
incidents  of  the  week,  the  month,  the  year; 
there  are  sabbaths,  new  moons,  seed-time  and 
harvest,  and  new  year  festivals.  This  period¬ 
icity  affects  the  whole  community  together. 
But  there  are  also  personal  events,  marking 


SACRED  ACTS 


159 


successive  stages  in  each  individual  career, 
which  must  be  placed  under  the  shelter  of 
religion,  and  do  not  all  occur  at  the  same 
time.  From  his  entry  into  the  world  to  his 
departure  from  it  each  person  passes  at  certain 
crises  out  of  one  condition  into  another,  and 
the  transition  requires  the  protection  of  the 
powers  above.  Birth,  the  attainment  of 
adolescence,  marriage,  death,  are  the  chief 
occasions  marked  by  what  M.  van  Gennep 
has  called  44  rites  of  passage.”  They  are  all 
connected  with  mysteries  of  life. 

For  life,  in  the  lower  culture,  is  exposed 
perpetually  to  dangers  of  all  kinds.  Demonic 
influences  continually  threaten  it ;  strange 
pollutions  beset  it;  the  blood  in  which  it  is 
often  located  has  about  it  something  weird, 
uncanny,  sometimes  unclean.  So  there  are 
preliminary  rites  for  bringing  in  the  soul  of 
the  child  as  yet  unborn  from  its  home  in 
the  ground,  among  the  flowers  and  trees,  or 
in  wells  and  lakes  and  running  streams. 
Among  tribes  which  regard  the  mother  as 
unclean  before  birth,  the  uncleanness  is 
transmitted  to  the  child,  and  ceremonies  of 
purification  must  be  performed  for  both. 
The  child  must  be  guarded  against  the  evil 
eye,  perils  of  infection  of  various  kinds,  or 
the  attacks  of  hostile  demons.  The  ritual 
of  cleansing  must  be  scrupulously  performed. 
When  Apollo  and  the  future  Buddha  were 
born,  divine  beings  received  them ;  Apollo 
was  washed  in  fair  water,  and  wondrous 


160  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


streams,  warm  and  cold,  descended  from  the 
sky  for  the  Indian  babe.  Sometimes  there 
is  such  haste  to  place  the  infant  under  divine 
care  that  it  is  borne  away  at  once  to  the 
temple,  as  Turner  aioticed  among  the  Nanum- 
angans  of  Hudson’s  island,  that  its  first 
breathings,  when  only  a  few  seconds  old, 
may  take  place  in  the  presence  of  the  god, 
and  his  blessing  be  invoked  on  the  essentials 
of  its  life. 

Around  the  cradle  friendly  influences  must 
be  secured,  the  child  must  be  duly  incorporated 
into  the  circle  of  the  cosmic  powers  and  of 
human  life.  He  is  laid  upon  the  ground 
for  contact  with  the  supporting  earth,  and 
presented  to  the  great  vivifier,  the  sun,  or 
held  over  the  fire.  Out  of  the  bath  grew  a 
rite  of  immersion  designed  to  solemnise  his 
admission  into  the  guild  of  mankind,  and 
wash  away  the  strange  element  of  evil  which 
seemed  to  inhere  in  human  nature.  In  Peru 
this  was  exorcised  by  the  priest,  who  bade  it 
enter  the  water,  which  was  then  buried  in 
the  ground.  The  Aztec  ritual  of  baptism, 
according  to  the  native  'writer  Sahagun, 
began  :  4‘0  child,  receive  the  water  of  the 
lord  of  the  world  which  is  our  life.  It  is 
to  wash  and  purify.  May  these  drops  remove 
the  sin  which  was  given  to  thee  before  the 
creation  of  the  world,  since  all  of  us  are  under 
its  power.”  This  was  a  real  act  of  regenera¬ 
tion,  for  the  priest  concluded  :  “  Now  he 
liveth  anew,  and  is  born  anew,  now  he  is 


SACRED  ACTS 


161 


purified  and  cleansed,  now  our  Mother  the 
water  again  bringeth  him  into  the  world.” 

After  purification  comes  the  ceremony  of 
giving  the  name,  fittingly  performed  in  the 
temple,  as  in  Greece,  Rome,  or  Mexico. 
Elements  of  personality  inhere  so  strangely 
in  names,  that  this  rite  also  acquires  great 
significance.  Perhaps  the  name  of  some 
ancestor  is  chosen,  who  may  thus  endow  the 
child  with  some  of  his  qualities,  or  at  least 
be  invoked  for  protection  and  aid.  Divine 
powers  have  watched  over  his  birth  (p.  121); 
others  may  decide  his  destiny,  like  the  three 
Greek  fateful  goddesses  Klotho,  Lachesis,  and 
Atropos,  or  the  venerable  Scandinavian  Norns. 
Or  the  aid  of  the  stars  must  be  invoked,  and 
a  horoscope  must  be  prepared  by  the  astrologer. 
Sometimes  a  special  guardian  power  may  be 
chosen  for  the  infant,  sometimes  the  choice 
is  reserved  for  him  at  a  later  stage.  Or  he 
may  be  dedicated  from  the  outset  to  some 
hallowed  service,  as  the  child  Samuel  was 
given  to  Yahweh. 

More  important  even  than  the  rites  of  birth 
and  infancy  are  those  of  the  attainment  of 
adolescence,  when  the  youth  is  admitted  to 
the  privileges  of  manhood  and  instructed  in 
the  secrets  of  the  tribe.  All  round  the  world 
the  lower  culture  has  its  ceremonies  of  initia¬ 
tion,  which  have  sometimes  survived  in  more 
refined  forms  in  more  highly  organised 
societies.  They  involve  seclusion  from  the 
common  life,  for  no  woman  must  be  cognisant 

L 


162  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


of  what  takes  place,  severe  bodily  trials  to 
test  the  youth’s  power  of  endurance — fasts, 
scourging,  loss  of  front  teeth,  tattooing  (so 
that  his  status  may  be  recognisable  at  once) 
and  other  forms  of  personal  scarification  and 
pain,  under  which  the  feeble  sink,  and  the 
happiest  are  those  who  die,  escaping  the 
humiliations  of  the  weakling’s  lot.  Long 
abstinence  in  lonely  places  begets  strange 
dreams  and  visions,  and  raises  nervous  excit¬ 
ability  to  its  highest  pitch.  Strange  forms 
appear  with  hideous  faces  and  mysterious 
trappings ;  appalling  sounds  are  heard ;  and 
it  is  only  when  the  hours  of  terror  are  past 
that  the  initiated  learns  that  the  awful  figures 
were  his  own  kinsmen  in  masks  and  disguises, 
and  the  Australian  is  told  that  what  he  took 
to  be  the  signal  of  Daramulun’s  advent  was 
produced  by  the  whirling  of  the  bull -roarer. 

In  the  midst  of  these  pantomimic  incidents 
the  novice  dies  to  rise  again.  Perhaps  he 
is  buried  in  the  fetish-house ;  or  he  passes 
through  the  bath  into  his  new  condition;  or 
he  is  vivified  by  the  sprinkling  of  blood.  But 
he  awakes  to  a  fresh  life.  He  must  be  utterly 
forgetful  of  the  old;  he  must  even  sometimes 
feign  ignorance  of  his  parents’  home  and 
names.  The  elders  then  impart  to  him  the 
customs  and  traditions  of  the  tribe.  He 
learns  the  rules  of  conduct,  and  duties  of 
reverence  and  obedience  to  the  aged,  who 
are  thus,  in  tribes  without  formal  government, 
placed  under  the  protection  of  religion.  The 


SACRED  ACTS 


163 


strain  of  prolonged  excitement  and  attention 
fixes  precept  and  counsel  indelibly  upon  "his 
memory,  and  he  knows  that  the  penalty  of 
betrayal  will  be  death. 

The  ancient  Indian  ritual  was  more  refined. 
The  three  upper  castes,  the  Brahman,  the 
noble,  and  the  cultivator  of  the  land,  be¬ 
longed  to  the  “  twice-born.”  Only  to  these 
was  the  study  of  the  Veda  permitted.  When 
the  youth  was  led  to  his  teacher  to  be  invested 
with  the  sacred  thread,  the  symbol  of  his 
dignity,  blessings  were  uttered  and  holy 
water  was  sprinkled  on  him.  Then  for  the 
first  time  was  he  permitted  to  repeat  the 
sacred  verse  (known  as  the  Gayatrl,  Rig  Veda, 
iii.  62,  10),  64  Let  us  meditate  on  that  excellent 
glory  of  the  divine  Vivifier,  may  he  enlighten 
our  understandings,”  which  is  still  recited 
daily  by  millions  of  devout  Hindus.  One 
of  the  later  books  of  the  Zoroastrian  faith 
lays  down  that  “it  is  necessary  for  all  those 
of  the  good  religion  to  celebrate  the  ritual 
and  become  navazud ,  newly  born,”  or  born 
again.  The  ceremony  began  with  a  purifica¬ 
tion  which  lasted  nine  nights,  and  included 
sprinkling  with  water;  the  candidate  for  the 
priesthood  must  be  of  the  age  of  fifteen;  he 
must  confess  his  sins,  endure  the  scourge; 
and  might  then  be  regarded  as  regenerate. 

Within  the  whole  group  of  initiates  secret 
societies  were  often  formed,  bound  together 
by  special  vows,  and  using  the  instrumentality 
of  religion.  Observers  in  West  Africa  and 


164  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


elsewhere  (they  are  also  common  in  Poly¬ 
nesia  and  Melanesia)  have  differed  widely  as 
to  their  value,  some  denouncing  them  for 
their  intolerable  tyranny,  others  finding  them 
useful  agents  of  police.  They  are  the  fore¬ 
runners  of  more  purely  religious  associations 
such  as  may  be  seen  in  the  mysteries  of 
Greece.  Here,  too,  were  ceremonies  of  initia¬ 
tion,  here  were  pantomimic  representations 
of  divine  events,  secrets  of  communion  with 
deity,  and  promises  of  life  beyond  the  grave. 

Most  famous,  of  course,  were  the  mysteries 
of  Eleusis,  in  charge  of  the  great  family  of 
the  Eumolpids.  Already  in  the  Homeric 
hymn  to  Demeter,  before  the  days  of  Jere¬ 
miah  and  Ezekiel,  all  Greece  had  been  bidden 
to  come  to  Eleusis,  and  receive  initiation 
into  the  rites  of  the  Lady  Mother  and  the 
Maid.  There  were  preliminaries  of  purifica¬ 
tion,  which  a  Christian  apologist  like  Clement 
of  Alexandria  could  compare  with  the  baptism 
of  the  Church.  Cleansed  from  the  stain  of 
sin,  the  candidate  was  required  to  be  devout 
and  holy.  What  was  the  precise  nature  of 
the  revelation  which  he  was  permitted  to  see 
is  uncertain.  The  passion-drama  of  the 
mother’s  loss  of  her  daughter,  her  search 
and  recovery,  may  have  grown  out  of  some 
seasonal  vegetation  ceremonies.  But  they 
had  taken  on  higher  meanings.  The  secret 
might  not  be  divulged  in  detail ;  there  is, 
however,  a  large  amount  of  testimony  that 
ideas  of  death  and  re-birth  or  resurrection 


SACRED  ACTS 


165 


played  a  great  part  in  this,  as  in  other  mystery- 
religions  ;  the  Homeric  hymn  to  Demeter  holds 
out  intimations  of  immortality  ;  and  by 
some  kind  of  communion  with  the  deity  the 
salvation  of  the  believer  was  assured. 

The  rites  of  the  Phrygian  Sabazius  touch 
the  processes  of  the  lower  culture  at  more 
than  one  point.  In  his  great  oration  44  on 
the  Crown  55  (315  B.c.)  Demosthenes  twits  his 
opponent  iEschines  in  such  terms  as  these  : 
44  You  assisted  your  mother  in  the  initiations, 
you  read  aloud  the  books  (the  ritual  prayers), 
and  took  part  in  the  rest  of  the  plot.  You 
put  on  (or,  you  robed  the  candidates  in) 
fawn -skins;  you  sprinkled  them  with  water 
from  the  bowl ;  you  purified  and  rubbed 
them  with  clay  and  bran,  then  you  raised 
them  from  their  purification,  and  bade  them 
say,  4 1  have  fled  the  bad,  and  found  the 
better.’  ”  On  the  gold  Orphic  tablets  dis¬ 
covered  in  South  Italy  and  Crete  occur  strange 
phrases :  44 1,  a  kid,  fell  into  the  milk,”  44  O 
blessed  and  happy  one,  thou  hast  put  off  thy 
mortality  and  hast  become  divine,”  which 
are  interpreted  with  great  probability  as 
references  to  a  ritual  of  milk-baptism  in 
which  the  initiate  was  born  again. 

That  idea  was  certain  expressed  in  the 
mysteries  of  Isis,  which  were  widely  spread 
in  the  Eastern  Mediterranean  (p.  40).  Here, 
too,  was  a  solemn  kind  of  death  and  re -birth ; 
here,  too,  lustrations  of  the  purest  water, 
the  priestly  declaration  of  the  pardon  of  the 


166  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


gods,  the  mystic  revelation  of  the  Goddess, 
herself  identified  with  all  deities  in  turn ; 
and  here,  after  the  vision,  the  assurance  of 
a  blessed  life  to  come.  The  candidate  for 
initiation  into  the  rites  of  Mithra  must  mount 
slowly  through  seven  stages.  The  details 
of  the  ritual  of  the  successive  grades  are 
unknown ;  but  in  accordance  with  ancient 
Iranian  practice  repeated  ablutions  were 
imposed  till  the  cleansing  waters  had  washed 
away  all  stains  of  guilt.  The  Mithraic  sacra¬ 
ments  so  closely  resembled  Christian  usage 
that  they  were  vehemently  denounced  by 
Church  writers  as  a  Satanic  parody.  They 
were  certainly  supposed  to  secure  happiness 
in  the  world  to  come.  The  believer  who 
had  passed  through  the  blood-bath  of  the 
slaughtered  bull  was  said  to  be  “  re-born  for 
ever.” 

Associated  with  sacrifice  and  prayer,  and 
partaking  at  once  of  the  characters  of  magic 
and  mystery,  is  the  sacred  dance.  Rhythmic 
movement  of  body  and  limbs  readily  becomes 
the  expression  of  strong  feeling ;  and  the 
feeling  in  its  turn  may  be  reawakened  by 
the  solemn  renewal  of  the  action.  When  it 
imitates  the  motions  of  the  warrior  or  the 
huntsman  it  comes  to  possess  a  magical 
value,  and  the  women  who  remain  at  home 
will  dance  all  day  while  their  husbands  are 
engaged  in  battle  or  the  chase.  Does  it  not 
quicken  their  courage  or  enhance  their  skill  ? 
The  child  in  an  elementary  school  now  learns 


SACRED  ACTS 


167 


his  action-songs,  and  sows  the  grain  and  reaps 
the  harvest.  He  does  not,  however,  suppose 
that  he  is  promoting  nature’s  work.  But  the 
women  whose  social  progress  has  advanced  to 
agriculture,  instead  of  imitating  the  gambols  of 
the.  wolf  or  bear,  will  celebrate  the  operations 
of  the  fields  to  stimulate  their  effectiveness, 
and  at  a  later  stage  still  will  go  forth  into  the 
vineyards  with  timbrel  and  song.  There  are 
dances  for  courtship  and  marriage,  dances  in 
initiations  and  mysteries,  dances  even  for  the 
funeral.  There  are  solemn  preparations,  as 
in  the  snake -dance  of  the  secret  order  of  the 
Snakes  among  the  Moquis  of  Arizona,  when 
the  members  must  not  only  wash  the  snakes, 
but  themselves  as  well  and  everything  about 
them  (in  the  same  water),  and  fast  for  one 
day.  Then  any  one  who  has  been  bitten 
will  be  healed,  and  when  the  pipe  is  lit,  the 
clouds  from  it  will  rise  and  form  rain-clouds, 
and  the  rain  will  fall  upon  the  altar  and  the 
sacred  things.  Or  the  dance  will  serve  for 
the  reunion  of  the  tribe,  and  becomes  a  great 
social  as  well  as  a  religious  institution.  The 
Sun-dance  of  the  Blackfoot  Indians  (p.  35)  is 
the  supreme  expression  of  their  religion,  and 
their  great  annual  religious  gathering.  It  must 
originate  in  a  woman’s  vow  for  the  recovery 
of  the  sick,  and  the  ceremonies  are  spread  over 
a  considerable  time.  Some  come  for  enjoy¬ 
ment,  some  to  fast  and  pray.  Some  must 
discharge  their  vows  for  the  healing  of  sick 
kinsfolk;  others  pay  the  price  of  deliverance 


168  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


from  peril  by  the  infliction  of  self-torture  in 
the  sun-lodge. 

The  vow,  the  fast,  and  all  the  varied  forms 
of  asceticism  which  Eastern  religions  have 
so  abundantly  produced,  all  involve  common 
elements  of  sacrifice  and  self -subjection.  The 
vow,  indeed,  has  in  part  the  nature  of  a 
contract.  It  is  not  magic,  it  is  a  bargain. 
There  is  no  constraint,  the  deity  may  avail 
himself  of  what  is  offered,  or  may  not.  If 
Yahweh  will  go  with  me,  says  Jacob,  and 
provide  me  food  to  eat  and  clothes  to  wear, 
he  shall  be  my  god  and  get  his  tithe.  But 
the  vow  involves  the  surrender  of  something 
otherwise  desirable.  It  is  the  same  with  the 
ascetic,  who  gives  up  food,  or  clothing,  or  sleep, 
or  the  bath,  or  speech,  or  a  fixed  home ;  who 
sits  between  four  fires  under  a  blazing  sun; 
who  lacerates  his  back  with  the  scourge  or  his 
flesh  with  knives;  who  holds  a  flower-pot  in 
his  hand  till  the  fingers  grow  round  it  immov¬ 
ably;  who  hangs  himself  up  by  hooks  in  his 
bare  back,  or  loads  himself  from  neck  to  feet 
with  chains.  Men  may  fast  religiously  to  over¬ 
come  bodily  desire ;  or  to  prepare  the  higher 
insight  for  strange  openings  of  vision.  44  The 
continually  stuffed  body,”  say  the  Amazulu, 
44  cannot  see  secret  things.”  Lacordaire  bade 
the  brethren  of  his  Order  scourge  him  that 
he  might  humble  himself,  and  taste  the  pain 
of  his  Redeemer.  But  the  extremer  forms 
of  asceticism  (especially  as  a  life-long  practice) 
are  always  based  on  the  idea  that  they  are  in 


SACRED  ACTS 


169 


themselves  meritorious;  they  produce  desert 
and  desert  leads  to  reward.  They  are  a  mode 
of  establishing  a  claim  on  the  future  bounty 
of  heaven ;  they  are,  after  all,  only  another 
form  of  44  doing  business  with  the  gods,’’ 


CHAPTER  VI 

SACRED  PRODUCTS 

In  the  intimate  connection  of  religion  with 
life  all  primitive  interests  are  placed  under 
its  sanction.  A  large  portion  of  time  is 
occupied  with  its  ceremonials.  The  fortunes 
of  the  tribe  are  bound  up  with  it.  To  the 
bounty  of  its  powers  they  owe  abundant  food 
and  safety  or  success  in  war.  Beneath  its 
protection  the  newly  born  enter  the  world, 
and  to  its  care  the  elders  are  committed  when 
they  die.  Its  holy  persons  rule  in  their 
midst ;  its  holy  places  are  all  round  about 
them;  its  sacred  objects  are  in  their  homes. 
It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  all  the 
higher  possessions  of  the  tribe,  its  arts  and 
crafts,  its  traditions,  its  customs  and  laws, 
its  stories  of  the  gods  and  their  dealings  with 
each  other  or  with  man,  should  be  ascribed 
to  the  same  origin.  Where  individuality  is 
hampered  at  every  turn  by  time-honoured 
conventions,  and  personal  initiative  is  im¬ 
perfectly  developed  and  timidly  confined 
within  the  narrowest  limits,  all  higher  in¬ 
tellectual  products,  command  over  nature, 
inventions,  poetry  and  song,  the  usages  of 

170 


SACRED  PRODUCTS 


171 


the  social  order,  and  the  rituals  for  serving 
the  gods,  carry  with  them  a  secret  force,  a 
mysterious  authority,  which  passes  the  bounds 
of  human  wisdom,  and  has  been  imparted 
from  some  higher  source.  Each  man  is 
dimly  conscious  that  his  single  wit  could  not 
have  compassed  these  things ;  he  does  not 
observe  the  long  processes  and  imperceptible 
stages  of  advance ;  he  accepts  the  theory 
offered  to  him  by  those  who  should  know  best, 
and  looks  back  to  the  days  when  kindly  powers 
took  in  hand  the  instruction  of  men. 

Thus  at  the  present  day  many  of  the 
Australian  tribes  whose  condition  has  probably 
changed  little  since  the  date  of  the  oldest 
civilisations  of  antiquity,  regard  their  scanty 
institutions  as  ordained  by  beings  above. 
Ask  the  Narrinyeri  why  they  adhere  to  any 
custom,  the  answer  is  that  Nurrundere  com¬ 
manded  it.  Baiame  and  Bunjil  laid  down  the 
marriage  laws  for  their  respective  tribes ; 
Bunjil,  moreover,  taught  the  Kulin  the  arts 
of  life ;  and  Daramulun  gave  the  Yuin  laws 
which  the  old  people  handed  down  from 
generation  to  generation. 

The  elaborate  cultures  of  Babylonia  and 
Egypt  claimed  similar  origins.  In  the  vast 
prehistoric  period  before  the  Flood  the  people 
round  the  lower  Euphrates  had  lived  without 
rule  or  order,  like  the  beasts  of  the  field, 
till  a  wondrous  Fish-Man,  whom  the  Greek 
historian  called  Oannes,  appeared  out  of  the 
Persian  Gulf  with  wisdom  from  the  sea.  He 


172  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


taught  them  arts  and  laws,  and  wrote  con¬ 
cerning  the  generation  of  mankind,  their 
different  ways  of  life,  and  their  civil  polity. 
It  was  no  other  than  Ea,  god  of  the  encircling 
Deep,  the  source  of  all.  Historic  inscriptions 
told  of  his  “  books,”  which  may  have  included 
ancient  oracles,  and  which  certainly  laid  down 
the  duties  of  a  king.  So  the  famous  code  of 
Hammurabi  (about  1950  b.c.),  recently  dis¬ 
covered  at  Susa  (1901),  was  handed  to  him, 
as  the  tablet  shows,  by  the  great  Sun-god, 
Shamash. 

The  Egyptian  priests,  perhaps  as  late  as 
the  great  Nineteenth  Dynasty,  before  the 
days  of  Moses,  threw  into  definite  shape  the 
vague  traditions  of  immemorial  antiquity, 
when  men  had  lived  devouring  one  another, 
ignorant  how  to  till  the  ground.  Osiris 
(p.  119)  taught  the  art  of  tillage,  the  use  of 
the  plough  and  hoe,  how  to  grow  wheat  and 
barley,  and  the  culture  of  the  vine ;  and  Isis 
added  the  domestic  arts  of  making  bread  and 
weaving  linen.  Osiris,  moreover,  appointed 
the  offerings  to  the  gods,  regulated  the 
ceremonies,  composed  the  texts  and  melo¬ 
dies  of  the  hymns.  And  among  his  succes¬ 
sors  was  Thoth  of  Hermopolis  (p.  8),  who 
introduced  astronomy  and  divination,  medi¬ 
cine,  arithmetic,  and  geometry,  and  whose 
“  books,”  embracing  a  kind  of  religious 
encyclopaedia,  were  known  to  the  Christian 
teacher,  Clement  of  Alexandria,  in  the  second 
century  of  our  era. 


SACRED  PRODUCTS 


173 


So  Zeus  gave  laws  to  Minos  in  Crete,  and 
Apollo  revealed  the  Spartan  constitution  to 
Lycurgus ;  Numa,  the  traditional  founder  of 
the  Roman  ceremonial  law,  received  instruc¬ 
tion  from  the  nymph  Egeria.  The  shepherd 
slave,  Zaleucus  (whom  Eusebius  placed  about 
660  b.c.),  taught  the  Locrians  what  Athena 
had  first  taught  him,  and  prefaced  his  laws 
by  enjoining  them  to  revere  the  gods  as  the 
real  causes  of  all  things  fair  and  good  in  life, 
and  keep  their  hearts  pure  from  all  evil, 
inasmuch  as  the  gods  do  not  take  pleasure  in 
the  sacrifices  of  the  wicked,  but  in  the  righteous 
and  fair  conduct  of  the  good. 

From  the  New  World  come  a  series  of 
similar  figures.  Mr.  Curtin  claims  to  show 
that  the  vast  area  of  the  American  continent 
is  pervaded  by  one  system  of  thought  in¬ 
calculably  old.  In  the  central  group  of  the 
most  sacred  personages  is  the  Earth  with 
Sky  and  Sun  conceived  sometimes  as  identical 
sometimes  as  distinct.  The  Earth-maiden  on 
whom  the  Sun  has  gazed,  becomes  a  mother, 
and  gives  birth  to  a  great  hero.  He  bestows 
on  men  all  gifts  that  support  existence,  and 
it  is  through  him  that  the  race  lives  and 
prospers.  To  the  Algonkins  he  was  Michabo 
or  Manibozho,  the  44  Great  Light,”  who  im¬ 
parted  vision,  author  of  wisdom,  arts,  and 
institutions.  Among  the  Toltecs  at  Tulla 
he  was  Quetzalcoatl,  virgin-born,  founder  of 
civilisation,  who  organised  worship  without 
human  or  animal  sacrifices,  and  endured  no 


174  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


war.  The  Miztecs  called  him  Votan,  prince 
and  legislator  of  his  people,  representative 
of  a  higher  wisdom,  so  that  he  rose  to  be  the 
mediator  between  earth  and  heaven.  In  the 
plains  of  Begota  the  white -bearded  Bohica 
appeared  to  the  Mozca  Indians,  taught  them 
how  to  sow  and  build,  formed  them  into 
communities,  contrived  an  outlet  for  the 
waters  of  their  great  lake,  and,  having  settled 
the  government  and  the  ritual,  retired  into 
ascetic  penance  for  two  thousand  years. 
Out  of  the  depths  of  Lake  Titicaca  in  Peru 
there  rose  one  day  the  son  and  daughter  of 
the  sun  and  moon,  Manco  Capac  and  Mama 
Ogllo,  sent  by  their  father  in  compassion 
for  men’s  wretched  plight.  They  taught  the 
ignorant  folk  agriculture,  the  chief  trades,  the 
art  of  building  cities,  aqueducts,  and  roads, 
and  Mama  Ogllo  showed  the  women  how  to 
spin  and  weave.  Then  when  all  was  in 
order,  and  overseers  were  appointed  to  see 
that  each  one  did  his  duty,  they  went  back 
to  the  skies. 

These  stories  all  belong  to  the  class  known 
as  myths.  They  are  not  accounts  of  what 
actually  happened,  they  are  the  work  of 
religious  imagination  operating  on  a  particular 
group  of  facts,  and  endeavouring  to  explain 
them.  The  scope  of  mythology,  whatever 
may  be  its  particular  origins,  is  of  the  widest 
compass.  It  embraces  the  whole  field  of 
nature  and  life.  It  first  came  into  modern 
view  through  the  study  of  classical  antiquity 


SACRED  PRODUCTS 


175 


in  Greece  and  Rome.  The  discovery  of 
Sanskrit  and  the  investigation  of  its  literature, 
especially  of  the  Vedic  hymns,  concentrated 
the  attention  of  scholars  for  a  time,  pre¬ 
eminently  under  the  genius  of  Max  Muller, 
on  the  relations  of  myth  to  language,  and  the 
resolution  of  various  deities  of  India  and 
Greece  into  the  phenomena  of  dawn  and 
sunshine,  of  the  thunderstorm  or  the  moon. 

But  it  was  gradually  found  necessary  to 
abandon  one  after  another  of  the  philological 
identifications  which  had  at  one  time  been 
proposed  with  confidence.  New  aspects  of 
mythology  demanded  consideration.  It  was 
not  only  concerned  with  the  incidents  and 
powers  of  nature,  or  with  the  various  relations 
of  the  gods.  It  appeared  also  in  the  field 
of  ritual.  It  often  contained  antique  secrets 
of  the  meaning  of  religious  performance.  It 
was  the  key  to  the  dramatised  representations 
of  the  sacred  dance,  the  ceremonials  on  which 
depended  the  welfare  of  the  tribe.  And  in 
proportion  as  action  acquired  a  larger  psycho¬ 
logical  recognition  in  shaping  the  character 
of  religion,  and  belief  receded  into  the  back¬ 
ground,  the  significance  of  the  development 
of  myths  was  changed. 

As  religion,  however,  became  more  self- 
conscious,  the  intellectual  element  in  it  gained 
more  force  and  energy,  and  the  thinkers  of 
the  priestly  schools  endeavoured  to  bring 
the  claims  of  different  deities  into  some  sort 
of  order,  and  regulate  .the  hierarchy  of  heaven. 


176  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


But  they  were  often  confronted  with  ancient 
elements  of  savagery  which  could  be  im¬ 
perfectly  harmonised  with  the  more  refined 
ideas  of  a  progressive  culture.  Thus  already 
in  Homer,  Zeus,  as  supreme  God,  bears  one 
significant  epithet;  he  is  m&tieta ,  full  of  metis 
or  counsel.  The  word  is  of  doubtful  deriva¬ 
tion,  but  with  the  strong  tendency  of  Greek 
imagination  to  turn  abstract  ideas  into 
persons,  Metis  is  presented  by  Hesiod  (next 
in  literary  succession  to  Homer)  as  the 
daughter  of  Ocean,  the  Hellenic  equivalent 
of  the  Babylonian  Deep,  source  of  all  being 
even  for  the  gods.  Greek  thought  was  not 
yet  ripe  for  the  ontological  conception  of 
wisdom  or  intelligence  as  inherent  in  the 
divine  nature,  so  the  union  of  Thought  with 
Zeus  is  represented  mythologically  as  a 
marriage,  and  Metis  becomes  the  bride  of 
the  great  “  king  of  gods  and  men.”  The 
result  is  conceived  in  truly  savage  fashion. 
In  order  to  possess  her  in  the  most  intimate 
manner,  and  embody  her  in  his  own  person, 
Zeus  suddenly  swallows  her.  Mythology,  of 
course,  has  to  provide  a  reason ;  she  would  bear 
a  son  who  would  overthrow  him.  The  poet 
(or  perhaps  his  editor),  desirous  of  correcting 
this  brutal  selfishness,  suggests  a  further 
plea ;  the  goddess  should  be  his  perpetual 
monitor,  and  warn  him  inwardly  of  good  and 
evil.  The  myth  is  being  directly  moralised. 

Whatever,  therefore,  may  be  the  origins 
of  myth,  whether  in  connection  with  tribal 


SACRED  PRODUCTS 


177 


tradition,  in  the  interpretation  of  the  incidents 
of  nature — as  when  a  Siberian  described  to 
Baron  von  Wrangell  the  occultation  of  one 
of  Jupiter’s  moons  by  saying  that  the  blue 
star  had  swallowed  another  very  small  star 
and  soon  after  vomited  it  up  again — or  in 
endeavours  to  picture  the  characters  and 
relations  of  the  gods,  the  beginnings  of  the 
world,  the  birth  of  man,  the  entry  of  evil, 
sin,  and  death,  or  the  condition  of  those 
who  have  already  passed  away,  the  myth  be¬ 
comes  the  reflex  of  the  culture  in  the  midst 
of  which  it  rises.  It  is  the  depository  of 
human  experience,  of  man’s  criticism  of  his 
own  life.  And  in  its  representations  of  a 
distant  age  when  gods  visibly  consorted  with 
men,  and  deigned  to  instruct  them  in  the 
conditions  of  social  welfare,  mythology  is  the 
direct  product  of  religion. 

When  the  gods  have  withdrawn  from  human 
fellowship,  and  no  longer  choose  their  brides 
from  the  dwellers  upon  earth,  or  even  vouch¬ 
safe  to  appear  among  them  in  various  forms 
for  temporary  help  or  promise  of  blessing, 
the  communications  from  heaven  do  not  cease 
altogether.  The  Vedic  poet  might  challenge 
the  existence  of  Indra,  the  fool  might  say  in 
his  heart,  4 4  There  is  no  God  ” ;  but  the  Powers 
above  never  left  themselves  without  a  witness. 
The  negro  going  out  of  his  hut  one  morning 
strikes  his  foot  against  a  peculiarly  shaped 
stone.  44  Art  thou  there  ?  ”  he  inquires,  and 
recognises  the  presence  of  a  guardian  and 

M 


178  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


helper.  The  Samoan  watches  the  behaviour 
of  a  spinning  cocoa-nut,  or  the  flight  of  a  bird 
to  right  or  left.  The  Central  Asiatic  notes 
the  cracks  on  a  tortoise’s  shell,  much  as  a 
modern  palmist  traces  the  lines  in  a  human 
hand.  The  liver  is  selected  as  the  special 
seat  of  the  prophetic  faculty,  and  Babylonian 
and  Etruscan  developed  a  common  diagnosis 
of  its  marks.  The  Celt  divined  by  the  water 
of  wells,  or  the  smoke  and  flames  of  ascending 
fires,  and  slew  his  prisoners  that  the  secrets 
of  destiny  might  be  discovered  in  their  entrails. 
China  and  Rome  made  divination  the  basis 
of  elaborate  state  systems.  Rome  produced 
a  literature  of  Augury,  with  books  of  regula¬ 
tions  and  minutes  of  procedure,  while  Plato 
commended  it  as  “  the  art  of  fellowship 
between  gods  and  men,”  and  the  philosophy 
of  the  Stoics  justified  it  on  the  ground  of  a 
providential  harmony  between  nature  and 
man,  so  that  divine  guidance  was  vouchsafed 
to  human  need.  Did  not  clouds  and  stars 
move  by  Heaven’s  great  ordinance  ? 

The  lot  took  the  responsibility  of  decision 
out  of  the  hands  of  man,  and  vested  it  in  the 
presiding  deity.  There  is  always  a  mystery 
in  chance,  which  could  be  interpreted  as  the 
will  of  God.  The  oath  implied  that  the 
heavenly  Powers  could  be  at  any  moment 
summoned  to  attest  man’s  veracity;  and  the 
vow  must  be  fulfilled,  though  it  might  cost 
Jephthah  the  sacrifice  of  his  daughter.  Per¬ 
jury  and  broken  vows  were  early  recognised 


SACRED  PRODUCT 


179 


among  the  gravest  of  crimes.  The  ordeal 
was  in  like  manner  the  inquisition  of  a  divine 
judge.  When  the  Adum  draught  was  ad¬ 
ministered  to  an  accused  Ashanti  upon  the 
Gold  Coast,  the  god  condescended  to  enter 
with  it;  he  looked  around  for  the  signs  of 
guilt,  and  if  he  found  none  he  returned  with 
the  nauseous  mixture  to  the  light  of  day. 
It  was  a  procedure  analogous  to  the  ancient 
rite  embedded  in  the  Levitical  Law  as  the 
test  of  a  wife’s  faithlessness  (cp.  Num.  v. 
11  sqq.). 

Another  mystery  lay  in  dreams,  which 
have  been  connected  with  supersensual 
powers  all  the  world  over.  To  the  savage 
who  cannot  analyse  his  experience  the  dream¬ 
world  is  as  real  as  that  of  his  waking  hours. 
The  dreams  that  follow  fasts,  whether  com¬ 
pulsory  through  deficient  food,  or  voluntary 
through  preparation  for  some  solemn  event, 
possess  peculiar  vividness ;  and,  when  attention 
has  been  fixed  upon  some  expected  crisis, 
readily  acquire  a  prophetic  significance. 
Divine  forms  are  seen,  and  strange  intimations 
are  conveyed  from  another  world.  The  dream 
verses  of  the  Icelander  brought  tidings  from 
those  who  had  been  lost  at  sea.  To  sleep 
upon  the  grave  of  a  dead  kinsman,  still  more 
of  a  hero  or  a  seer,  was  the  means  of  receiving 
communications  from  the  wisdom  of  the  dead. 
Did  not  philosophy  teach  that  in  sleep  the 
mind  is  less  hampered  by  its  physical  en¬ 
vironment,  and  attains  truth  more  nearly; 

M  2 


180  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


and  what  condition  was  so  suitable,  therefore, 
for  the  beneficent  revelation  of  a  god  ? 

In  Greece,  accordingly,  the  practice  of 
sleeping  at  the  tombs  of  heroes  or  in  the 
temples  of  gods  was  regularly  organised. 
The  sanctuaries  of  Aesculapius,  of  which  more 
than  two  hundred  can  be  traced  round  the 
Eastern  Mediterranean  and  in  Italy,  were 
specially  frequented  by  patients  who  resorted 
thither  for  medical  treatment  and  the  advice 
of  the  god.  The  sufferer  must  pass  through 
the  preliminary  discipline  of  the  bath,  and 
to  his  purifications  must  add  the  due  offering 
of  a  sheep.  The  victim’s  fleece  was  carried 
into  the  holy  precincts,  and  on  it  the  sick 
man  lay  down  for  the  night.  In  the  visions 
of  the  dark  hours  the  god  appeared,  and 
prescribed  the  mode  of  cure,  or  even  con¬ 
descended  to  operate  himself.  An  inscription 
at  Epidaurus  records  that  the  stiffened 
fingers  of  a  patient  were  straightened  out 
and  restored  for  use  by  the  god’s  own  grasp. 
Was  it  surprising  that  Aesculapius  should 
become  the  object  of  increasing  reverence, 
and  in  the  second  century  of  our  era  should 
be  enthroned  in  the  highest  as  “  Saviour  (or 
Preserver)  of  the  universe  ”  ? 

Under  other  conditions  the  visitation  of 
the  god  expresses  itself  in  poetic  form.  Among 
the  ruder  peoples  whose  songs  are  of  the 
simplest — perhaps  the  most  childish — kind, 
the  faculty  of  rhythmic  utterance  seems 
superhuman.  Words,  lines,  stanzas,  follow 


SACRED  PRODUCTS 


181 


each  other  with  a  spontaneity  which  seems 
out  of  the  reach  of  ordinary  effort.  The 
chants  of  worship  have  been  again  and  again 
carried  back  to  divine  authorship  in  a  distant 
past.  The  marriage  of  speech  with  music 
is  no  art  of  man.  So  the  Finnic  hero,  Waina- 
moinen,  conceived  by  the  wind,  and  born 
(after  seven  hundred  years  in  the  womb) 
by  the  maiden  Ilmatar,  added  to  his  gifts 
of  fertility  and  fire  the  invention  of  the  harp, 
and  the  teaching  of  wisdom,  poetry,  and  music 
to  man.  Odin  was  the  god  of  wisdom  and 
poetry  for  Scandinavia,  god  also  of  the  holy 
draught,  which,  like  the  Indian  Soma,  gave 
inspiration.  The  poet  brewed  Odin’s  mead, 
bore  Odin’s  cup ;  and  in  old  Teutonic  speech 
was  godh-malugr ,  “  god-inspired.”  Hermes 

passed  in  Greece  as  the  inventor  of  the  lyre, 
which  he  gave  to  Apollo,  chief  among  the 
deities  who  declared  to  man  the  unerring 
counsel  of  Zeus;  and  Homer  already  counts 
singer  and  song  as  alike  divine. 

The  lovely  forms  of  the  Muses,  daughters 
of  Zeus  and  Memory,  or  with  an  alternative 
mother  in  Harmony,  were  endowed  with 
functions  of  song  and  prophecy,  and  between 
them  and  the  historic  poets  stood  a  group,  half 
mythical,  half  human,  whose  names  were 
attached  to  actual  hymns  and  poems.  Such 
were  Orpheus,  Musseus,  Eumolpus,  Thamyris, 
and  Linos.  The  verses  ascribed  to  them 
tended  to  acquire  an  authoritative  character ; 
they  were  cited  as  a  rule  or  norm  for  conduct ; 


182  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


they  were  on  the  way  to  become  a  Scripture. 
Homer  and  Hesiod  were  employed  in  the  same 
way ;  and  Plato  denounces  the  mendicant 
prophets  who  went  to  rich  men’s  doors 
offering  to  make  atonements,  and  quoting 
Homer  and  Hesiod  as  religious  guides. 
Nevertheless,  though  he  proposed  to  banish 
from  his  ideal  State  the  poets  who  said  un¬ 
worthy  things  of  the  gods,  he  elsewhere 
formulates  the  highest  claim  for  poetry  as 
a  supernatural  product.  The  poets  are  only 
the  interpreters  of  the  gods  by  whom  they 
are  severally  possessed  ;  4 4  God  takes  away  the 
minds  of  the  poets ;  ”  “  God  himself  is  the 
speaker,  through  them  he  is  conversing  with 
us.”  It  is  the  lament  of  the  Bantus  of  South 
Africa  that  since  the  white  man  came  the 
springs  of  music  and  song  have  ceased  to 
flow :  “  The  spirits  are  angry  with  their 

children,  and  do  not  teach  them  any  more.” 

Another  mode  of  converse  between  deity 
and  man  was  found  in  the  oracle.  Wide¬ 
spread  was  the  belief  that  through  certain 
chosen  persons  or  in  certain  peculiar  spots 
the  gods  deigned  to ,  communicate  with  those 
who  sought  their  aid.  Such  agencies  were 
peculiarly  numerous  in  the  Hellenic  world,  and 
the  oracle  at  Delphi  acquired  supreme  import¬ 
ance.  As  early  as  the  eighth  century  b.c., 
in  the  days  of  Amos  and  Isaiah,  it  is  rising  into 
prominence  as  an  authority  that  may  take 
the  leading  place  in  Greek  religion.  At  one 
time  it  almost  seemed  as  if  it  might  succeed 


SACRED  PRODUCTS 


183 


in  co-ordinating  the  separate  and  often 
opposing  forces  of  the  City  States,  and  blend 
them  into  national  unity.  If  that  hope  was 
ever  cherished  by  its  guardians,  they  failed 
to  realise  it.  The  higher  minds  discerned 
in  it  capacities  which  were  never  fulfilled. 
They  saw  it  give  counsel  to  rival  powers, 
promote  enterprise,  and  support  plans  of 
colonisation.  They  knew  that  it  exercised 
a  far-reaching  moral  authority;  it  compelled 
reverence  for  oaths,  and  secured  respect  for 
the  lives  of  women,  suppliants,  and  slaves; 
and  again  and  again  in  true  prophetic  spirit 
it  subordinated  ritual  to  ethical  demands. 
With  the  widest  outlook  over  human  affairs, 
Plato  proposes  to  establish  the  midpoint 
of  religious  legislation  in  Delphi  at  Apollo’s 
shrine  :  64  He  is  the  god  who  sits  in  the  centre, 
on  the  navel  of  the  earth,  and  he  is  the  inter¬ 
preter  of  religion  to  all  mankind.”  It  is  the 
note  of  universalism  :  had  not  Jeremiah 
proclaimed  two  centuries  before  on  behalf  of 
Yahweh  at  Jerusalem :  46  My  house  shall  be 
called  a  house  of  prayer  for  all  nations  ”  ? 

When  the  Israelites  had  renewed  their 
temple  in  the  days  of  Darius,  and  the  scribes 
were  beginning  to  busy  themselves  with  the 
remains  of  their  national  literature,  Greek 
writers  also  interested  themselves  in  the 
collection  of  the  utterances  of  the  past. 
About  500  b.c.  Onomacritus  gathered  together 
the  oracles  of  Musseus.  It  was  the  first 
instance  of  what  became  a  frequent  practice 


184  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


in  later  days ;  one  of  Plato’s  disciples,  Hera- 
cleides  of  Pontus,  undertook  a  similar  task; 
so  did  Chrysippus  the  Stoic.  A  special  litera¬ 
ture  was  thus  begotten.  The  circumstances 
which  called  for  the  successive  oracles  were 
duly  narrated ;  and  had  Delphi  maintained 
its  early  position,  here  would  have  lain 
the  nucleus  of  a  Scripture,  which  might 
have  developed  into  a  permanent  record  of 
revelation. 

Italy,  in  like  manner,  had  its  libri  fatales , 
its  sacred  books  of  destiny.  There  were 
Etruscan  oracles  under  the  name  of  the  nymph 
Begoe  or  Vegone ;  there  were  the  Marcian 
Songs,  said  to  have  been  adopted  as  genuine 
by  the  Roman  Senate  in  213  b.c.  The 
ancient  city  of  Veii  had  its  books;  Tibur 
(Tivoli)  the  “  lots  ”  of  the  nymph  Albunea. 
Most  famous  of  all  were  the  Sibylline  books, 
brought  (according  to  later  tradition)  from 
Cumae  to  Rome,  perhaps  in  the  last  days  of 
the  monarchy,  or  a  little  later  (about  500  b.c.), 
and  placed  in  the  Temple  of  Jupiter  on  the 
Capitol  under  the  charge  of  two  special 
guardians.  These  were  afterwards  increased 
to  ten,  and  in  the  year  51  b.c.  to  fifteen.  The 
office  remained  till  the  books  were  destroyed 
in  a.d.  400,  when  Christianity  had  been  finally 
established  as  the  imperial  religion.  What 
they  contained  is  doubtful ;  how  they  were 
consulted  is  not  knowm  Their  aid  was  sought 
after  prodigies,  pestilence,  or  disaster  had 
awakened  general  alarm;  but  their  actual 


SACRED  PRODUCTS 


185 


words  were  not  made  public.  Nevertheless 
they  supplied  the  basis  for  important  religi¬ 
ous  innovations.  The  introduction  of  Greek 
deities  by  their  sanction  profoundly  affected 
Roman  religious  ideas,  and  left  deep  marks  on 
literature  and  art. 

In  the  year  83  B.c.  the  temple  which  con¬ 
tained  the  books  was  burned.  The  greatest 
anxiety  was  displayed  for  their  restoration. 
Envoys  were  sent  to  Sicily,  Greece,  and  Asia 
Minor  to  collect  fresh  verses ;  they  were 
deposited  in  a  new  temple,  and  prophecies 
were  founded  on  them  in  the  last  days  of  the 
Republic.  But  it  was  believed  that  spurious 
verses  had  got  into  circulation,  and  Augustus 
ordered  a  rigid  examination.  Some  two 
thousand  volumes,  it  is  alleged,  were  destroyed ; 
those  which  were  admitted  as  genuine  were 
removed  to  a  temple  of  Apollo  which  Augustus 
had  himself  dedicated  on  the  Palatine  hill. 
Here  are  the  characteristics  of  a  Canon.  The 
books  are  kept  under  special  charge  in  a  temple. 
Their  authority  suffices  to  modify  old  cults 
and  introduce  new.  When  they  perish,  they 
must  be  restored.  The  false  must  be  separated 
from  the  true,  the  genuine  eliminated  from  the 
spurious.  The 4  moral  element  in  them  seems 
to  have  been  entirely  subordinated  to  the 
ritual ;  but  they  were  believed  to  express  in 
seasons  of  difficulty  and  danger  the  demands 
of  the  gods.  . 

The  transition  to  what  are  formally  called 
66  Sacred  Books  ”  leaves  a  considerable  litera- 


186  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


ture  upon  the  boundary.  The  collection  of 
the  ancient  national  Finnic  songs,  made  with 
so  much  patience  by  the  Swedish  Lonrott, 
under  the  name  of  the  Kalevala,  presents  no 
claim  to  inspiration,  but  it  is  the  poetical 
expression  of  the  national  religion.  In  the 
literature  of  the  Eddas,  the  Volospa  (p.  248) 
is  a  product  of  the  prophetic  spirit.  After 
Herodotus  remarked  that  Homer  and  Hesiod 
made  the  gods  of  the  Greeks,  the  Homeric 
poems  acquired  more  and  more  authority, 
until  by  the  usage  of  centuries  they  gained 
a  semi -canonical  position.  Lectures  were 
given  upon  their  sacred  text,  and  the  most 
extravagant  methods  of  interpretation  were 
employed  to  reconcile  them  with  the  world¬ 
view  of  philosophy.  The  ancient  Egyptian 
accepted  the  46  Book  of  the  Dead  55  as  his 
guide  to  the  next  world.  Chapters  of  it  were 
inscribed  on  the  walls  of  his  tomb,  engraved 
on  his  coffin,  or  laid  inside  it  with  his  mummy. 
It  contained  the  charms  needful  for  the 
preservation  of  his  soul  on  its  journey  to  the 
land  of  the  West.  Its  authors  were  unknown, 
but  it  contained  the  secrets  of  the  life  to 
come. 

The  “  Bibles  of  Humanity,”  as  the  founda¬ 
tion-books  of  the  great  religions  have  been 
called,  belong  to  one  continent.  Asia  has 
been  the  mother  of  them  all.  The  oldest  takes 
shape  in  India  in  the  Vedic  hymns ;  and  the 
immense  literatures  of  Brahmanism,  early  and 
later  Buddhism,  and  the  Hinduism  which 


SACRED  PRODUCTS 


187 


finally  drove  Buddhism  off  the  field,  follow  in 
due  course.  Cognate  in  language  with  the 
immigrant  Aryans,  the  ancient  Persians  pre¬ 
served,  amid  many  losses,  some  of  the  com¬ 
positions  of  their  prophet  Zarathustra,  mingled 
with  religious  documents  of  later  date,  known 
to  modern  students  by  the  name  Zend  A  vesta. 
Palestine  produces  Judaism,  with  its  collection 
of  national  literature  embracing  law,  history, 
prophecy,  poetry,  and  wisdom.  Judaism  gives 
birth  to  Christianity,  which  sets  its  New 
Testament  beside  the  Old ;  and  Judaism  and 
Christianity  lie  behind  Mohammed  and  the 
Koran,  where  the  person  and  the  book  blend 
in  the  closest  union. 

In  the  Far  East  Chinese  culture  reposes  on 
the  so-called  Classics,  the  five  King  and  the 
four  Shu,  which  had  a  chequered  history  till 
they  finally  acquired  their  position  as  foun¬ 
tains  of  knowledge  and  models  of  composition. 
The  ancient  odes  of  the  Shi  King,  the  traditions 
of  rulers  and  the  counsels  of  statesmen  in  the 
Shu  King,  the  collections  of  the  teaching  of 
Confucius  and  Mencius,  and  the  remaining 
works  which  need  not  be  mentioned  here, 
raise  none  of  the  claims  which  have  been 
preferred  for  the  Indian  Veda,  or  the  Christian 
Bible.  Nor  does  the  singular  little  book  of 
aphorisms  ascribed  to  Lao-Tsze,  which  serves 
as  the  starting-point  for  Taoism  (p.  67).  The 
Shintoist  of  Japan  finds  the  earliest  records 
of  his  religion  in  the  national  chronicles  known 
as  the  Kojiki  and  the  Nihongi;  and  the 


188  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


modern  believer,  who  has  been  offered  an 
infallible  Bible,  responds  with  a  profession 
of  faith  in  the  practical  inerrancy  of  his  own 
traditional  books. 

Some  smaller  communities  claim  a  passing 
word.  The  Jains  (p.  61),  once  the  rivals  of 
the  Buddhists,  possess  a  sacred  literature  only 
less  copious.  Group  after  group  appears  in 
mediaeval  India  singing  the  hymns  of  its 
founder,  such  as  the  Kabir-panthis,  till  the 
poet  Tulsi-Das  (born  1532)  embodies  in  his 
version  of  the  ancient  Ramayana  the  essence 
of  Hindu  religion  for  some  ninety  millions 
from  Bengal  to  the  Punjab.  The  Sikhs  (p.  62) 
stay  themselves  upon  the  words  of  their  holy 
teachers  in  the  Adi-Granth.  The  followers 
of  Mani  in  the  third  century  of  our  era,  who 
threatened  the  progress  of  the  Christian 
Church,  and  spread  all  the  way  from  Carthage 
to  Middle  Asia,  possessed  a  gospel  and  epistles 
of  their  Prophet,  portions  of  which  were 
brought  to  Berlin  a  few  years  ago  from  Chinese 
Turkestan.  The  Druzes  of  the  Lebanon, 
whose  origin  goes  back  to  the  Caliph  Hakim 
at  Cairo  in  the  eleventh  century  a.d.,  treasure 
the  documents  of  the  faith  in  111  treatises 
and  epistles,  starting  from  Hakim’s  vizier, 
Hamza.  And  the  hapless  prophet  of  Persia, 
who  designated  himself  the  Bab  (p.  70), 
composed  in  the  Beyyan  (among  numerous 
other  works)  an  exposition  of  the  Truth  for 
his  disciples.  For  such  small  communities 
a  sacred  literature  is  in  fact  a  necessity. 


SACRED  PRODUCTS 


189 


Without  it  they  have  no  adequate  cohesion. 
It  is  at  least  one  of  the  conditions  of  permanent 
resistance  to  the  forces  of  decay. 

Around  the  Scriptures  of  the  greater  religions 
devout  reverence  has  gathered  with  ardent 
faith.  The  Hindu  term  Veda  (meaning 
literally  44  knowledge  ”)  has  a  narrower  and 
a  wider  sense.  In  its  limited  application  it 
denotes  the  four  collections  of  hymns,  of 
ritual  formulae,  and  sacrificial  songs,  of  which 
the  Rig-Veda  is  the  most  important  (p.  10). 
Their  history  must  be  inferred  from  their 
contents ;  of  the  circumstances  of  their 
formation  there  is  no  external  evidence,  save 
that  the  early  Buddhist  texts  show  that  the 
fourth  or  Atharva-Veda  had  not  acquired 
canonical  value  in  the  days  of  the  Teacher 
Gotama.  But  the  term  Veda  is  also  extended 
to  include  a  mass  of  ceremonial  compositions 
known  as  Brahmanas,  attached  to  one  or 
other  of  the  ancient  collections,  and  handed 
down  in  different  religious  schools.  These  are 
all  included  more  or  less  definitely  in  what  a 
Western  theologian  might  term  44  Revelation.” 
They  are  technically  designated  as  cruti  or 
44  hearing  ” ;  they  form  the  matter  of  the 
sacred  teaching  transmitted  orally,  which 
must  be  reserved  for  a  special  order  and  not 
imparted  to  the  world  outside. 

The  books  of  household  law,  on  the  other 
hand,  prescribing  the  domestic  ceremonies 
for  birth,  marriage,  and  death,  regulating 
caste -privileges,  and  laying  down  rules  for 


190  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


the  conduct  of  life,  were  open  to  all.  But 
just  as  the  Rig- Veda  was  exalted  into  a 
reproduction  on  earth  of  what  existed  eternally 
in  heaven,  so  endeavours  were  made  to  con¬ 
vert  the  legal  works  current  in  particular 
schools  into  sacred  codes  of  divine  origin. 
One  was  boldly  ascribed  to  Vishnu,  who 
communicated  it  to  the  goddess  of  the  earth. 
Another,  most  famous  of  all,  was  attached  to 
Manu,  the  eponymous  hero  of  the  human  race. 
“  Father  Manu  55  he  is  called  in  the  Rig- Veda, 
and  as  the  sire  of  mankind  he  was  the  founder 
of  social  and  moral  order.  First  king,  and 
Rishi  (or  seer)  privileged  to  behold  the  sacred 
texts,  he  was  the  inventor  of  rites  and  author 
of  the  maxims  of  law.  And  yet  higher  dignity 
belonged  to  him,  for  he  sprang  from  the  Self- 
Existent  and  could  thus  be  identified  with 
Brahma  himself ;  and  as  Prajapati  (p.  143) 
he  took  part  in  the  creation  of  the  world.  In 
due  course  poetry  and  philosophy  had  their 
turn.  The  immense  epic  known  as  the 
Mahabharata,  where  tradition  and  myth  and 
imaginative  speculation  are  blended  in  rich 
confusion,  was  put  in  the  scales  by  the 
gods  against  the  four  Vedas,  and  its  sanctity 
outweighed  them  all. 

The  Buddhist  Scriptures  were  early  grouped 
in  three  divisions  under  the  title  of  the  Three 
Baskets.  The  teachings  of  the  Supremely 
Enlightened  were  of  course  absolutely  true, 
and  his  rules  for  the  members  of  his  Order 
were  of  compelling  authority.  It  was  assumed 


SACRED  PRODUCTS 


191 


that  they  were  recited  correctly  at  an  assembly 
held  immediately  after  his  decease.  The 
“  Buddha- Word  ”  thus  became  the  infallible 
standard  of  faith  and  practice.  There  are 
traces  of  provision  to  meet  difficulties  in  case 
different  elders  should  believe  themselves  to 
possess  varying  traditions  of  the  Buddha’s 
commands  :  but  not  even  the  enormous 
expansion  of  the  Scriptures  of  the  Great 
Vehicle,  as  preserved  in  China  and  Japan,  shook 
the  faith  of  the  disciple  in  the  authentic 
character  of  their  doctrine.  The  higher 
teaching  belonged  to  the  later  years  of  the 
Buddha’s  life,  and  was  transmitted  by  special 
channels.  It  is  much  as  if  Gnosticism  had 
established  itself  in  the  Christian  Church  of 
the  second  century,  and  had  formed  its  litera¬ 
ture  into  a  Canon  beside  our  New  Testament. 
Nepal,  according  to  the  testimony  of  Bryan 
Hodgson,  raised  its  sacred  books  into  objects 
of  worship.  Chinese  respect  was  satisfied 
when  they  were  issued  from  time  to  time  (p.  66) 
with  a  preface  by  the  imperial  Son  of  Heaven. 

The  oldest  portion  of  the  sacred  literature 
collected  under  the  name  of  the  Zend  Avesta 
consists  of  five  hymns  (called  Gathas),  ascribed 
to  Zarathustra  himself.  They  bear  many 
marks  of  high  antiquity,  and  they  acquired 
a  peculiar  sanctity,  so  that  the  later  sacrificial 
hymns  already  regard  them  as  objects  of 
homage  to  which  worship  should  be  offered. 
Above  the  actual  Scriptures  rose  a  radiant 
figure,  in  which  the  conception  of  revelation 


192  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


was  impersonated.  Iranian  thought  was 
markedly  idealist ;  each  earthly  object  had  its 
spiritual  type,  its  antecedent  or  counterpart 
in  the  heavenly  realm.  The  religion  and  law 
of  Zarathustra  had  their  representative  in 
Daena,  who  is  already  celebrated  with  pious 
praise  in  the  A  vesta.  Sacrifice  is  offered  to 
her  as  she  dwells  in  the  Heavenly  House,  the 
Abode  of  Song.  Thence  Zarathustra  summons 
her,  beseeching  her  fellowship — she  is  asso¬ 
ciated  with  Cista,  44  religious  knowledge  ” — 
and  he  asks  of  her  mystic,  powers  and  righteous¬ 
ness  in  thought  and  speech  and  deed.  Later 
teaching  declared  her  to  be  produced  by  Vohu 
Mano,  the  44  Good  Mind  ”  of  Ahura  Mazda 
himself  (p.  131).  As  the  actual  utterance  of 
the  Lord  Omniscient,  the  sacred  Law  might  also 
be  called  his  mathra  cpenta  or  44  Holy  Word.” 

Jewish  theology  was  not  altogether  deficient 
in  similar  conceptions.  Corresponding  to  the 
Torah  or  Law  imparted  to  Moses,  was  a 
heavenly  Torah,  infinitely  richer  in  content. 
It  formed  one  of  a  mysterious  group  of  seven 
Realities  which  existed,  like  the  Throne  of 
Glory,  Eden,  and  Gehenna,  before  the  making 
of  the  earth  and  sky.  It  was  a  kind  of  epitome 
of  all  possible  cosmic  relations,  so  that  as  an 
architect  frames  his  plan  for  a  city,  God  looked 
into  the  Torah  when  he  would  create  the  world. 
Christian  theology  has  never  employed  this 
imagery  to  express  its  conception  of  Revela¬ 
tion.  But  it  lies  at  the  back  of  the  curious 
language  of  the  Koran  concerning  the  44  Mother 


SACRED  PRODUCTS 


193 


of  the  Book  ”  (p.  13).  Mohammedan  theo¬ 
logians  reckoned  no  less  than  ten  ways  in 
which  the  Prophet  received  his  revelations. 
Sometimes  the  divine  inspiration  came  in  a 
dream,  sometimes  like  the  noise  of  a  bell 
through  which  he  recognised  the  words  which 
Gabriel  wished  him  to  understand.  Other 
books  had  been  given  previously  to  Moses, 
to  David,  to  Jesus,  and  each  nation  would  be 
summoned  to  its  own  book  at  the  judgment. 
The  believer  in  Islam  recognised  in  the 
“  Mother  of  the  Book  ”  the  pre-existent  or 
Eternal  Word,  which  God  from  time  to  time 
“sent  down  ”  to  his  Prophet,  It  had  definite 
size  and  aspect  for  Arab  imagination.  The 
commentator  Jalalain  described  it  as  existing 
in  the  air  above  the  seventh  heaven.  There 
angel  guardians  defended  it  from  theft  by 
Satan  or  the  change  of  any  of  its  contents. 
It  was  as  long  as  from  heaven  to  earth,  and 
as  broad  as  from  east  to  west;  and  its  con¬ 
sistency  was  of  one  white  pearl.  Was  it 
surprising  that  Mohammedan  faith  should 
support  the  utterance  of  the  pious  Cadi 
Iyad  (who  died  in  Morocco,  a.d.  1149) :  “  The 
Koran,  as  it  lies  between  the  two  covers  is 
God’s  own  word,  which  he  imparted  by  way 
of  inspiration  to  the  Prophet.  Therefore  is 
it  in  every  way  inimitable,  and  no  man  can 
produce  anything  like  it  ”  ? 

Christian  theology  has  refrained  from  these 
physical  emblems.  But  it  was  possible  for  a 
scholar  of  unquestioned  learning  to  declare 

N 


194  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


in  the  pulpit  of  the  University  of  Oxford  barely 
half  a  century  ago  (1861)  that  “  the  Bible  is 
none  other  than  the  voice  of  him  that  sitteth 
upon  the  throne.  Every  book  of  it,  every 
chapter  of  it,  every  verse  of  it,  every  word  of  it, 
every  syllable  of  it  (where  are  we  to  stop  ?), 
every  letter  of  it,  is  the  direct  utterance  of  the 
Most  High  .  .  .  faultless,  unerring,  supreme.” 


CHAPTER  VII 


RELIGION  AND  MORALITY 

The  expression  of  religion  in  action  produces 
the  offering  and  the  prayer  :  by  sacrifice  and 
devotion,  with  thanksgiving  and  requests, 
do  men  approach  their  gods.  But  there  is 
another  way  of  entering  into  fruitful  obedience 
to  them.  Certain  kinds  of  conduct  may  be 
acceptable  to  them,  and  others  not.  Are 
these  concerned  only  with  ceremonial  acts, 
or  do  they  include  the  behaviour  of  men  to 
each  other  ?  How  far  does  religion  promote 
or  regulate  what  we  call  morality  ?  What 
are  their  relations,  and  how  do  they  affect  one 
another  ?  This  question  has  been  discussed 
in  innumerable  treatises ;  attention  can  only 
be  invited  to  it  here  from  the  point  of  view 
of  the  historical  comparison  of  religions, 
without  reference  to  philosophical  definitions. 
Every  one  admits  a  connection  of  some  sort, 
for  good  or  for  evil,  at  some  period  in  their 
respective  development.  They  may  not  have 
started  hand  in  hand.  Their  alliance  may  be 
disbanded,  and  morality  may  claim  total 
independence.  But  at  some  time  on  the 
journey  they  have  marched  together. 

N  2  195 


196  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


The  difficulty  of  the  inquiry  arises  in  part 
from  the  variety  of  views  as  to  the  scope  and 
essence  of  both  morality  and  religion.  Where 
do  they  begin,  and  in  what  do  they  consist  ? 
The  philosopher  may  demand  a  complete 
recognition  of  the  freedom  of  the  will,  and 
the  independent  activity  of  the  conscience, 
and  savages  who  have  no  such  words  are  set 
down  as  destitute  of  morality,  just  as  those 
who  have  no  Heavenly  Father  and  no  devil, 
no  heaven  and  no  hell,  are  described  as  without 
religion.  It  is  obviously  impossible  to  expect 
to  find  everywhere  our  categories  of  right  and 
wrong;  yet  even  Lord  Avebury  lent  his  high 
authority  to  the  statement  that  there  are 
many  savages  almost  entirely  without  moral 
feeling  largely  on  the  ground  of  the  absence 
of  ideas  of  sin,  remorse,  and  repentance.  Mr. 
Huxley  in  the  same  way  declared  it  obvious 
that  the  lower  religions  are  entirely  unethical. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  idealist  strenuously 
affirms  the  intimacy  of  the  connection.  We 
are  assured  that  the  historical  beginning  of 
all  morality  is  to  be  found  in  religion ;  or  that 
in  the  earliest  period  of  human  history,  religion 
and  morality  were  necessary  correlates  of  each 
other ;  or  that  all  moral  commandments  have 
originally  the  character  of  religious  command¬ 
ments.  And  the  student  of  comparative 
religion  like  the  late  Prof.  Robertson  Smith 
cautiously  affirms  that  “  in  ancient  society 
all  morality,  as  morality  was  then  understood , 
was  consecrated  and  enforced  by  religious 


RELIGION  AND  MORALITY  197 


motives  and  sanctions.”  The  words  which 
we  have  italicised  contain  exactly  the  limi¬ 
tation  which  is  ignored  by  the  philosopher  who 
requires  that  the  gods  shall  be  patterns  of 
conduct,  and  administrators  of  an  ethical 
world-order.  Plainly  the  question  is  settled 
in  different  ways  according  to  different 
standards  of  what  religion  and  morality 
mean.  If  we  are  content  to  begin  low  enough 
down,  we  may  see  reason  to  believe  that  in 
that  stage  of  thought  in  which  religion,  magic, 
and  custom  are  so  strangely  intertwined, 
morality  is  also  not  wanting.  Even  the 
Fijian,  who  called  some  of  his  gods  by  hideous 
names,  such  as  44  the  Rioter,”  44  the  Brain- 
eater,”  44  the  Murderer,”  regarded  theft, 
adultery,  and  such  offences,  as  serious. 

The  difficulty  of  broad  general  statements 
lies  in  the  imperfection  of  our  knowledge. 
Againand  again  closerobservation  has  revealed 
quite  unexpected  secrets.  Whole  ranges  of 
belief,  feeling,  action,  formerly  concealed  from 
observation,  have  been  brought  to  light.  Thus 
about  twenty  years  ago  Major  Ellis,  writing 
of  the  Ewe,  Tshi,  and  Yoruba  peoples  on  the 
Gold  Coast,  laid  it  down  that  44  religion  at  the 
stage  of  growth  at  which  we  find  it  among 
these  three  groups  of  tribes,  has  no  connection 
with  morals,  or  the  relations  of  men  to  one 
another.”  But  the  German  missionary,  Jakob 
Spieth,  now  tells  us  (1911)  that  among  the 
Ewe-speaking  folk  not  only  does  Mother  Earth 
punish  with  death  those  who  have  sworn 


198  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


falsely,  but  Mawu,  God,  who  knows  the 
thoughts  and  hearts  of  men,  who  is  the  giver 
of  everything  good  upon  the  earth  —  very 
patient  and  never  angry — will  not  allow  one 
brother  to  deceive  another,  or  suffer  the  king 
to  judge  unrighteously,  or  permit  one  to  burn 
another’s  house  down.  Morality  here  is  more 
than  rudimentary;  the  justice  of  man  is  put 
under  the  guardianship  of  God,  who  requires 
“  truth  in  the  inward  parts.”  Another  West 
African  observer,  Major  Leonard,  on  the  Lower 
Niger,  describes  religion  as  intermingled  with 
the  whole  social  system  of  the  tribes  under 
his  view.  It  supplies  the  principle  on  which 
their  law  is  dispensed  and  morality  adjudicated. 
The  entire  organisation  of  their  common  life 
is  so  interwoven  ’with  it  that  they  cannot  get 
away  from  it.  Like  the  Hindus,  “  they  eat 
religiously,  drink  religiously,  bathe  religiously, 
dress  religiously,  and  sin  religiously.” 

The  beginnings  of  morality  can  no  more  be 
discovered  historically  than  the  beginnings  of 
religion.  Language,  in  various  nations,  implies 
that  it  springs  out  of  custom.  The  foundation 
of  practical  ethics,  whatever  may  be  the 
ultimate  interpretation  of  such  terms  as  duty 
and  conscience  in  more  advanced  cultures,  lies 
in  social  usage.  When  any  custom  is  estab¬ 
lished  with  sufficient  strength  to  serve  as  a 
rule  demanding  observance,  so  that  its  breach 
evokes  some  feeling,  the  seed  of  morals  is 
already  germinating.  No  group  however 
small,  no  society  however  crude,  can  cohere 


RELIGION  AND  MORALITY  199 


without  some  such  customs.  They  may  be 
formed  in  various  ways ;  they  are  strengthened 
by  habitual  repetition ;  they  acquire  the 
sanction  of  the  past,  they  are  usually  referred, 
when  men  have  begun  to  ask  how  they  came 
into  being — just  as  they  ask  about  their  own 
origin — to  some  great  First  Man,  or  some 
superhuman  personality  in  the  realm  above 
(p.  171).  But  always  there  are  some  things 
allowable,  and  others  forbidden  :  some  things 
may  (or  even  must)  be  done,  others  may 
not. 

When  custom  has  gained  this  power,  it 
carries  with  it  an  element  of  control.  Impulse 
must  not  be  inconsiderately  indulged,  it  must 
be  governed.  Private  interests  must  be 
subordinated  to  a  rule,  and  conduct  conformed 
to  a  standard  of  behaviour.  In  the  ruder 
culture,  where  the  supply  of  food  is  of  urgent 
importance,  such  rules  gather  around  the 
produce  of  the  chase  or  of  the  ground.  Among 
the  Australian  Kurnai,  for  example,  all  game 
caught  by  the  men,  all  roots  or  fruits  collected 
by  the  women,  must  be  shared  with  others 
according  to  definite  arrangements.  Methodic 
distribution  is  obligatory,  and  self-denial  in 
sharing  and  eating  is  thus  impressed  upon  the 
young.  Moreover  certain  varieties  of  food 
are  strictly  forbidden  to  women,  children,  and 
boys  before  initiation. 

Prohibitions  of  this  kind,  extending  over 
many  branches  of  conduct,  are  found  all  over 
the  world.  They  are  often  designated  by  a 


200  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


term  in  use  in  Polynesia,  taboo  ( tabu  or  tapu). 
Their  origin  has  been  much  disputed,  owing 
to  the  extraordinary  complexity  of  the  circum¬ 
stances  with  which  they  are  concerned.  Taboo 
contains  emphatically  an  element  of  mystery. 
It  comes  out  of  a  vague  dim  background,  and 
implies  that  some  strange  power  will  be  set 
in  perilous  operation  if  a  certain  thing  is  done. 
Such  a  power,  obscure,  indefinite,  not  personal¬ 
ised,  but  mightier  than  men,  has  been  recog¬ 
nised  at  the  base  of  religion  under  another 
term,  the  Melanesian  mana  (p.  80).  Taboo 
has  been  accordingly  described  as  a  negative 
mana.  It  is  a  prohibition  against  calling  the 
weird  uncanny  force  into  the  open,  where  it 
may  do  unexpected  hurt. 

The  objects  and  actions  placed  under  such 
taboos  are  various ;  and  it  is  for  the  anthro¬ 
pologist  and  the  psychologist,  if  they  can,  to 
discover  their  origin  and  application  in  each 
particular  case.  They  involve  ideas  of  purity 
and  defilement,  the  holy  and  the  common, 
the  clean  and  the  unclean.  They  gather  in 
particular  round  blood,  which  rouses  in  some 
animals  as  in  many  human  beings  an  instinc¬ 
tive  aversion  and  disgust,  and  yet  is  at  the 
same  time  sacred  as  a  seat  of  life.  They  enter 
at  the  great  crises  of  existence,  birth  and 
death ;  the  mother,  and  perhaps  also  the 
new-born  child,  are  unclean,  and  must  be 
purified;  the  corpse  defiles  whoever  touches 
it.  They  attend  the  sexual  processes,  which 
are  the  occasion  of  releasing  dangerous 


RELIGION  AND  MORALITY  201 


energies.  So  they  affect  people  as  well  as 
things.  The  king  is  charged  with  this 
mysterious  force,  and  is  hedged  round  with 
taboos  lest  it  should  suddenly  burst  forth 
against  the  intruder  on  his  sanctity.  The 
chief,  the  priest,  possess  it  in  less  degree. 
And  it  is  transmitted  to  what  belongs  to 
them.  Their  weapons,  their  food  and,  above 
all,  their  persons,  are  sacred.  The  oft-quoted 
story  of  the  Maori  may  still  be  repeated  here  : 
it  is  not  the  only  case  of  the  kind.  Strong 
and  stalwart,  he  found  some  food  beside  the 
path,  and  ate  it.  He  learned  shortly  after¬ 
wards  that  it  was  the  remains  of  the  king’s 
meal.  He  had  violated  a  royal  taboo.  The 
secret  power  had  him  in  its  grasp  :  he  was 
speedily  seized  with  cramp  in  the  stomach, 
and  in  a  few  hours  died. 

Ritual  religions  are  full  of  survivals  of  such 
taboos.  44  O  Maker  of  the  material  world,” 
inquires  Zarathustra  of  Ahura  Mazda,  “can 
he  be  clean  again  who  has  eaten  of  the  carcass 
of  a  dog,  or  the  corpse  of  a  man  ?  ”  In  ancient 
Israel  various  foods  were  forbidden  by  re¬ 
ligious  law ;  the  priest  might  not  touch  a  dead 
body;  when  a  murder  had  been  committed 
and  the  murderer  could  not  be  found,  the 
elders  of  the  city  must  solemnly  purify  the 
ground  which  unpunished  bloodshed  had  de¬ 
filed.  Early  Roman  religion  contained  many 
such  prohibitions ;  from  certain  sacrifices 
women  and  strangers  and  fettered  criminals 
must  withdraw ;  there  are  traces  of  taboo  on 


202  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


iron  and  shoe-leather,  on  burial  grounds  and 
spots  where  thunder-bolts  were  supposed  to 
have  fallen,  and  on  certain  days,  especially 
those  connected  with  the  cult  of  the  dead. 
Such  taboos  still  play  a  great  part  in  savage 
society,  and  exert  no  little  moral  force  in 
preserving  honesty  and  order.  In  Samoa, 
observed  Turner,  objects  placed  under  taboo 
are  perfectly  safe ;  they  are  in  no  danger  of 
theft.  Primitive  morality  is  thus  brought 
under  the  sanction  of  religion. 

All  over  the  world,  as  we  have  seen  (p.  161), 
the  young  receive  a  very  severe  training  in 
preparation  for  their  entry  into  the  full 
privileges  and  duties  of  the  tribe.  They  are 
then  instructed  in  the  traditional  rules  of 
conduct,  the  proper  abstinences,  the  right 
behaviour  of  the  sexes.  Such  ceremonies  are 
recognised  as  of  great  importance  in  com¬ 
munities  of  the  simplest  form  without  political 
control,  for  it  is  through  them  that  the  social 
ties  of  tribal  kinship  gain  coherence  and 
strength.  Various  observers  have  testified 
to  the  consideration  displayed  in  Australia, 
for  instance,  towards  the  aged,  the  sick,  and 
the  infirm.  The  blind  are  often  carefully 
tended,  and  the  best  fed.  44  As  a  matter  of 
fact,”  says  Mr.  Marett,  44  the  earlier  and  more 
democratic  types  of  primitive  society,  un¬ 
contaminated  by  our  civilisation,  do  not 
present  many  features  to  which  the  modern 
conscience  can  take  exception;  but  display 
rather  the  edifying  spectacle  of  religious 


RELIGION  AND  MORALITY  203 


brotherhoods  encouraging  themselves  by 
mystical  communion  to  common  effort.” 

In  West  Africa  Miss  Kingsley  noted  the 
close  connection  in  negro  communities  between 
religion  and  life.  To  get  through  day  or  night 
a  man  must  be  right  in  the  religious  point  of 
view;  he  must  be  on  working  terms  with  the 
great  world  of  spirits  round  him.  In  spite  of 
much  make-believe  the  secret  societies  in 
which  the  men  are  enlisted  under  solemn 
oaths,  are  recognised  as  important  moral 
agencies.  The  Ukuku,  recently  described  by 
Dr.  Nassau,  could  settle  tribal  quarrels,  and 
proclaim  or  enforce  peace,  when  no  individual 
chief  or  king  could  end  the  strife.  Such 
organisations  regulate  marriage  laws,  the 
duties  of  parents  and  children,  the  privileges 
of  eldership,  the  recognition  of  age  and  worth. 
The  entry  into  them  lies  through  the  rites  of 
religion. 

“  I  have  studied  these  societies,”  wrote  Miss 
Kingsley;  “  I  am  in  possession  of  fairly  com¬ 
plete  knowledge  of  three  of  them.  I  know 
men  acquainted  with  ten  other  societies,  and 
their  information  is  practically  the  same  as 
my  own,  viz.  that  those  rites  consist  in  a  series 
of  oath-takings  as  you  pass  from  grade  to 
grade  .  .  .  Each  grade  gives  him  a  certain 
amount  of  instruction  in  the  native  law. 
Each  grade  gives  him  a  certain  function  in 
carrying  out  the  law.  And  finally,  when  he 
has  passed  through  all  the  grades,  which  few 
men  do,  when  he  has  sworn  the  greatest  oath 


204  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


of  all,  when  he  knows  all  the  society’s  heart’s 
secret,  that  secret  is  1 1  am  I,’  the  one  Word. 
The  teaching  of  that  Word  is  law,  order, 
justice,  morality.  Why  the  one  Word  teaches 
it,  the  man  does  not  know.  But  he  knows  two 
things  :  one  that  there  is  a  law-god,  and  the 
other  that,  so  says  the  wisdom  of  our  ancestors, 
his  will  must  be  worked  or  evil  will  come.  So 
in  his  generation  he  works  to  keep  the  young 
people  straight.” 

Taboos  may  be  violated  unconsciously,  and 
tribal  laws  may  be  transgressed  sometimes 
intentionally,  sometimes  by  accident.  The 
resulting  guilt  must  be  removed,  if  the  offender 
or  the  community  is  not  to  incur  the  wrath  of 
the  affronted  Powers.  Sin,  like  holiness,  has 
this  peculiar  property  that  it  can  be  communi¬ 
cated  by  contact.  Savage  morality  does  not 
always  rise  above  the  confusion  between  the 
physical  and  the  mental.  Evil  qualities  such 
as  uncleanness  can  be  transferred  from  persons 
to  things,  just  as  from  things  to  persons. 
Pains  and  diseases  can  be  extracted  from  the 
sufferer,  and  magically  sent  into  animals  or 
objects  which  can  be  driven  away  or  destroyed  ; 
and  moral  evil  can  be  similarly  removed. 
When  an  At  khan  of  the  Aleutian  Islands  had 
committed  a  serious  offence  and  desired  to 
unburden  himself,  he  chose  a  time  when  the 
sun  was  clear,  picked  up  certain  weeds,  and 
carried  them  about  his  person.  After  they 
were  thus  sufficiently  impregnated  by  contact 


RELIGION  AND  MORALITY  205 


with  him,  he  laid  them  down,  called  the  sun 
to  witness,  cast  his  sins  upon  them,  and  threw 
them  into  the  fire.  The  consuming  flame 
burned  away  his  guilt. 

The  Peruvian  made  his  confession  to  the 
sun,  and  then  bathed  in  an  adjoining  river. 
There  he  rid  himself  of  his  iniquity,  saying 
“  O  thou  river,  receive  the  sins  I  have  this 
day  confessed  to  the  sun,  carry  them  down  to 
the  sea,  and  let  them  never  more  appear.” 
The  oldest  and  the  most  recent  rituals  repeat 
the  same  idea  in  various  forms.  In  one  ,of 
the  Vedic  ceremonials  of  sacrifice,  the  sacrificer 
and  his  wife  towards  the  close  bathed  and 
washed  each  other’s  backs.  Then  having 
wrapped  themselves  in  fresh  garments,  they 
stepped  forth,  and  we  read  :  44  Even  as  a 

snake  casts  its  skin,  so  does  he  cast  away  all 
his  sin.  There  is  in  him  not  so  much  sin  as 
there  is  in  a  toothless  child.”  Water  was 
likewise  employed  in  Babylonia,  where  the 
incantation  ran,  44 1  have  washed  my  hands, 
I  have  cleansed  my  body  with  pure  spring 
water  which  is  in  the  town  of  Eridu.  All  evil, 
all  that  is  not  good,  in  my  body,  my  flesh,  my 
limbs,  begone  !  ”  Or,  44  By  the  wisdom  of 
thy  holy  name  let  the  sin  and  the  ban  which 
were  created  for  man’s  misery  be  removed, 
destroyed,  and  driven  away.” 

Like  physical  evil  such  as  disease,  so  moral 
evil  might  be  attributed  to  the  action  of  spirits, 
and  periodic  ceremonies  might  be  performed 
for  purging  the  community  by  driving  them 


206  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


out.  Sometimes  the  sins  were  buried  in  the 
ground ;  sometimes  they  were  thrown  into  the 
river;  sometimes  they  were  concentrated  on 
a  person  or  an  animal ;  or  were  magically 
expelled  under  the  sanction  of  religion  into 
some  object  which  could  be  destroyed.  In 
the  annual  celebration  of  the  Thargelia  at 
Athens,  in  the  month  of  May,  under  the 
solemn  sanction  of  Apollo,  two  44  purifying 
men  ”  were  led  through  the  streets  to  be 
whipped  with  rods,  and  then  driven  over  the 
border  of  the  state,  bearing  the  people’s  sins. 
The  Levitical  ritual  (Lev.  xvi)  incorporated 
at  a  late  date  a  solemn  ceremony  on  the  tenth 
day  of  the  first  month  of  the  ancient  religious 
year  (in  September),  when  an  act  of  atonement 
was  performed  for  the  whole  nation.  Two 
goats  were  brought  into  the  sanctuary,  and 
lots  were  cast  upon  them.  One  was  dedicated 
to  Yahweh,  over  the  other  the  high  priest 
confessed  the  iniquities  of  the  children  of 
Israel;  and  by  the  laying  on  of  hands  he 
transferred  them  to  the  head  of  the  doomed 
animal,  which  was  then  led  forth  into  the 
wilderness  for  a  mysterious  power  of  evil, 
Azazel.  As  the  temporary  adjuncts  of  so 
much  guilt,  the  high  priest  and  the  goat -leader 
were  required  to  purify  themselves  afterwards 
by  bathing;  the  high  priest  must  change  his 
robes,  and  the  goat-leader  wash  his  clothes. 

So  in  modern  times  in  Nigeria  the  town  sins 
are  annually  laid  on  some  unhappy  slave -girl, 
perhaps  selected  some  time  before.  As  she 


RELIGION  AND  MORALITY  207 


is  led  through  the  street  the  householders 
come  forth  and  discharge  the  year’s  accumu¬ 
lated  evil  on  her;  then  she  is  dragged  to  the 
river,  bound,  and  left  to  drown.  Japan  is 
satisfied  without  a  life.  The  ancient  ritual 
of  purification  shows  that  in  the  early  cen¬ 
turies  of  the  national  history  a  public 
ceremony  was  occasionally  performed.  In 
the  revival  of  Shinto  usage  which  marked  the 
late  reign,  it  was  re-enacted  by  imperial 
decree  in  1872  for  half-yearly  celebration  on 
June  30  and  December  31,  at  all  Shinto 
shrines.  Four  or  five  days  before  these  dates 
the  believer  was  enjoined  to  procure  from  his 
priest  a  piece  of  white  paper  cut  in  the  shape 
of  a  garment.  On  this  he  was  to  write  his 
name  and  sex,  with  the  year  and  month  of 
his  birth ;  then  he  must  rub  it  over  his  body, 
and  finally  breathe  on  it.  His  sins  would 
thus  be  transferred  to  the  paper  robe,  which 
was  to  be  taken  back  to  the  priest.  Offerings 
of  food  and  purifying  ceremonies  would  com¬ 
plete  the  believer’s  release.  The  paper  gar¬ 
ments  with  their  load  of  guilt  were  then  to 
be  packed  in  cases  which  were  to  be  put  in 
boats,  rowed  out  to  sea,  and  committed  to  the 
deep.  There  they  would  be  carried  to  the 
great  Sea  Plain  by  the  Maiden  of  Descent-into- 
the -Current,  who  would  convey  them  to  the 
Maiden  of  the  Swift  Opening,  dwelling  in  the 
Eight  Hundred  Meetings  of  the  Brine  of 
the  Eight  Brine  Currents.  She  would  swallow 
them  down  with  a  gurgling  sound,  and  the 


208  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


Lord  of  the  Breath-blowing  Place  would 
finally  blow  them  away  into  the  Root-Country, 
the  bottom  apparently  of  the  under-world  ! 

The  relation  of  morality  to  religion  tends 
to  become  more  definite  along  different  lines 
of  thought,  which  are  constantly  intertwined, 
and  of  which  three  are  only  isolated  here  for 
the  purpose  of  the  briefest  possible  illustration 
of  the  forms  in  which  they  have  appeared 
historically.  In  the  first  place,  the  world 
may  be  regarded  as  a  scene  in  which  rival 
powers  of  help  and  hurt  are  engaged  in  con¬ 
stant  conflict ;  and  the  physical  dualism  thus 
exhibited  may  be  reproduced  in  the  sphere 
of  morals  as  a  contest  between  powers  of 
good  and  evil.  Secondly,  the  course  of 
nature  may  be  viewed  as  a  world-order, 
where  seasonal  uniformities  are  the  mani¬ 
festation  of  a  permanent  principle  of  harmony 
which  is  the  guide  of  human  conduct,  and  the 
vicissitudes  of  daily  or  annual  experience  are 
interpreted  as  the  judgments  of  heaven  on 
man’s  doings,  national  or  personal.  And 
thirdly,  the  development  of  the  individual 
conscience  may  surmount  the  confusion 
which  ranks  ritual  offences  along  with  moral 
transgressions,  and  the  ethical  life  may  be 
set  wholly  free  from  ceremonial  bondage,  and 
carried  up  into  the  realm  of  spirit. 

The  lower  culture  all  over  the  world  ascribes 
disease  or  accident,  madness,  calamity,  and 
death,  to  the  agency  of  hostile  powers  lying 


RELIGION  AND  MORALITY  209 

in  wait  for  man,  and  breaking  in  on  his 
security.  The  violences  of  the  elements,  the 
hurricane,  the  flood,  the  earthquake,  the  vol¬ 
canic  eruption,  are  in  the  same  way  the 
work  of  giants  towering  in  might  above  the 
common  herd  of  the  demons  of  air,  water,  or 
earth.  The  spirits  of  the  evil  dead,  especially 
of  powerful  magic-men,  Shamans,  and  the 
like,  of  malicious  character,  are  potent  for 
sickness  and  disaster.  But  in  their  un¬ 
organised  ranks  there  is  no  controlling  or 
directing  force.  Here  and  there  some  figure 
or  group  emerges  into  prominence.  At  the 
head  of  the  demonic  hosts  of  Babylonian 
mythology  is  a  band  of  seven  ruling  spirits, 
perhaps  the  windy  counterparts  of  the 
sun  and  moon  and  the  five  planets.  In 
Egyptian  story  Set  (or  by  his  Greek  name 
Typhon)  is  the  evil  opposite  of  the  good  Osiris 
whom  he  does  to  death;  or  it  is  the  sun 
himself  who  is  attacked  in  his  nightly  journey 
by  the  serpent  Apap  with  his  monstrous  crew. 

Scandinavian  mythology  was  full  of  these 
conflicts.  The  oppositions  of  light  and  dark¬ 
ness,  storm  and  calm,  warmth  and  cold,  were 
felt  with  unusual  vehemence.  Over  the  motley 
multitude  of  powers  infesting  forest  and  field, 
the  wind  and  the  water,  rose  the  giants  of 
mountain  and  cataract,  the  furious  blast,  the 
curdling  frost.  The  giants  of  the  frost  were 
evil  powers,  like  the  wolf  Fenris,  and  the 
serpent  Nidhogg,  who  lay  beneath  one  of  the 
roots  of  the  mighty  cosmic  tree  (in  Niflheim, 
o 


210  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


a  second  being  among  the  frost -giants,  and 
a  third  among  the  gods),  for  ever  gnawing 
till  the  great  world’s  end.  Above  them  rose 
the  dread  goddess  Hel,  the  “  hollow,”  once, 
apparently,  the  name  of  the  grave,  and  then 
of  the  power  that  ruled  the  gloomy  under¬ 
world,  the  abode  of  those  who  had  not  fallen 
upon  the  battle-field.  She,  in  her  turn,  was 
subordinated  to  Loki,  once  reckoned  among 
the  gods,  capricious  and  tricky,  who  becomes 
the  father  of  Hel,  the  wolf  Fenris,  and  the 
Midgard  snake,  and  leads  the  forces  of  evil 
for  the  destruction  of  the  world.  He  com¬ 
passes  the  death  of  Balder  the  fair,  Odin 
perishes  by  the  wolf,  and  Thor  by  the  serpent ; 
though  god  and  wolf  and  serpent  in  their  turn 
sink  in  common  ruin.  But  the  powers 
engaged  in  the  strife  are  all  superhuman ; 
man  has  no  share  in  the  warfare,  save  when 
the  warriors  pass  at  death  into  the  abode  of 
the  gods,  and  take  their  place  beside  them 
in  the  final  conflict.  Loki  is  no  Devil,  he  does 
not  tempt,  or  interfere  with  the  children  of 
earth ;  he  does  not  affect  their  present  conduct 
or  future  destiny. 

The  oppositions  of  light  and  darkness 
belong  to  every  zone  all  round  the  world,  and 
were  perhaps  most  strongly  felt  among  the 
Indo-Iranian  branches  of  the  great  Aryan 
family.  The  name  deva  in  ancient  Indian 
mythology  denotes  the  shining  powers  of 
the  upper  world,  the  radiant  dwellers  in  the 
sky.  In  contrast  with  it  stands  another,  the 


RELIGION  AND  MORALITY  211 


asura ,  once  a  title  of  high  honour,  for  it  clung 
even  to  Varuna,  but  later  degraded  to  the 
designation  of  demonic  beings,  who  appear 
again  and  again  in  contest  with  the  devas  for 
the  precious  drink  of  immortality.  So  the 
realm  of  darkness  is  the  realm  of  evil.  Into 
the  pit  of  darkness  are  the  wicked  thrust  :  and 
when  right  and  wrong  are  presented  under 
the  forms  of  truth  and  falsehood,  and  untruth 
is  identified  with  gloom,  the  poet  reached  the 
natural  symbolism — “Light  is  heaven,  they 
say,  and  darkness  hell.” 

It  was,  however,  among  the  cognate  Iranian 
people  that  this  antithesis  acquired  the 
greatest  force,  under  the  influence  of  the 
prophet  Zarathustra.  By  a  curious  historic- 
religious  process  which  cannot  here  be  traced, 
the  terms  of  the  opposing  forces  were  reversed. 
Ahura  (=  asura)  remained  the  name  of  the 
Supreme  Power,  with  the  addition  of  the  term 
Mazda ,  “  all -knowing,”  and  the  daevas  (—devas) 
became  the  evil  multitude.  In  the  oldest 
part  of  the  Zend  Avesta  Ahura  appears  as  the 
sole  Creator,  the  God  of  light  and  purity  and 
truth,  who  dwells  on  high  in  the  Abode  of 
Song.  Beside  him  is  his  Good  Mind,  and  the 
Holy  (or  beneficent,  gracious)  Spirit.  But 
opposed  to  him  in  the  realm  of  darkness 
beneath  is  “  the  Lie  ”  (drug),  with  its  correlates 
the  Bad  Mind  and  the  Evil  Spirit  (Anra 
Mainyu ,  not  yet  a  proper  name).  The  world 
between  is  the  scene  of  continuous  struggle, 
and  in  this  conflict  man  is  called  to  take  his 


212  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


part.  Ritual  purity,  appropriate  sacrifice, 
and  personal  righteousness  in  thought,  word, 
and  deed,  are  his  weapons  in  the  fight.  By 
these  he  helps  to  establish  the  sovereignty  of 
Ahura,  and  to  curtail  the  power  of  64  the  Lie.” 
The  earliest  representations  offer  no  account 
of  the  origin  of  the  Drug  any  more  than  of 
Ahura  himself.  But  later  speculation,  im¬ 
pressed  with  the  contrasting  elements  of 
human  life,  began  to  ascribe  to  him,  too, 
under  the  name  of  Ahriman  (  Anra  Mainyu), 
creative  power ;  all  noxious  animals  and 
plants  were  due  to  him;  plague  and  disease 
came  from  his  hands;  all  agencies  of  cold, 
darkness,  and  destruction  were  his  work;  he 
was  the  daeva  of  daevas,  Lord  of  death,  and 
author  of  temptation.  And  finally,  in  the 
long  process  of  thought  the  two  powers  of  good 
and  evil  had  both  issued  from  a  still  higher 
unity,  Zervan  Akarana,  Time  without  bound. 
But  long  ere  this  the  Persian  character  had 
responded  to  Zarathustra’s  teaching  of  war¬ 
fare  against  44  the  Lie  ”  ;  and  Herodotus  bears 
testimony  to  their  repute  for  loyalty  to  truth. 
For  from  the  earliest  days  the  dualism  of 
Zarathustra  bound  together  morality  and 
religion  in  the  closest  alliance.  How  the 
great  demand  for  the  ultimate  victory  of  good 
was  to  be  justified  will  be  seen  hereafter 
(p.  247). 

A  second  group  of  figures  embodying  the 
same  idea  of  the  connection  of  morality  with 
religion  is  found  in  the  various  impersonations 


RELIGION  AND  MORALITY  213 


of  the  Order  of  Nature  and  its  correlate  in  Law 
in  the  world  without  and  the  heart  within. 
The  speculations  of  the  early  Greek  philo¬ 
sophers  in  their  attempts  to  reach  an 
ultimate  Unity  behind  all  the  diversities  of 
appearance  familiarised  the  higher  minds 
with  the  idea  of  the  harmony  of  the  cosmos. 
64  Law,”  sang  Pindar,  “  is  king  of  all,  both 
mortals  and  immortals.”  And  this  sovereign 
order  is  represented  mythologically  by  Themis, 
whom  Hesiod  exalts  to  be  the  daughter  of 
Heaven  and  Earth,  and  bride  of  Zeus.  Pindar 
pictured  her  as  borne  in  a  golden  car  from  the 
primeval  Ocean,  the  source  of  all,  up  to  the 
sacred  height  of  Olympus,  to  be  the  consort 
of  Zeus  the  Preserver.  But  though  she  is 
thus  the  spouse  of  the  sovereign  of  the  sky, 
she  is  in  another  aspect  identified  with  Earth, 
scene  of  fixed  rules  both  in  nature  and  social 
life,  for  with  the  cultus  of  the  earth  were 
associated  not  only  the  operations  of  agricul¬ 
ture,  but  the  rites  and  duties  of  marriage,  and 
the  maintenance  of  the  family.  So  Themis 
is  the  mother  of  the  seasons  in  the  annual 
round,  and  the  sequences  of  blossom  and  fruit 
are  her  work;  but  among  her  daughters  are 
also  Fair  Order,  Justice,  and  Peace,  and  the 
world  and  the  State  thus  reflect  obedience  to  a 
universal  Law. 

Behind  Greece  lay  Egypt,  where  tradition 
said  that  Thales,  first  of  Greeks  to  philosophise, 
had  studied.  When  the  soul  of  the  dead  man 
was  brought  to  the  test  of  the  balance  (p.  8), 


214  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


he  was  supported  by  the  goddesses  of  Maat 
or  Truth.  Derived  from  the  root  ma,  “  to 
stretch  out,”  this  name  covered  the  ideas  of 
rectitude  or  right,  and  Maat  was  the  splendid 
impersonation  of  order,  law,  justice,  truth,  in 
both  the  physical  and  moral  spheres.  She 
is  the  daughter — or  even  the  eye — of  the  Sun- 
god  Re.  But  she  is  conceived  in  still  more 
exalted  fashion  as  the  sovereign  of  all  realms, 
and  is  elevated  above  all  relationships.  She 
is  Lady  of  heaven,  and  Queen  of  earth,  and 
even  Lady  of  the  Land  of  the  West,  the 
mysterious  dwellings  of  the  dead.  In  one 
aspect  she  serves  each  of  the  great  gods  as  her 
lord  and  master;  in  another  she  knows  no 
lord  or  master.  So  it  is  by  her  that  the  gods 
live  ;  she  is,  as  it  were,  the  law  of  their  being ; 
alike  for  sun  and  moon,  for  days  and  hours, 
in  the  visible  world,  and  for  the  divine  king 
at  the  head  of  his  people.  She  is  solemnly 
offered  by  the  sovereign  to  his  god,  and  the 
deity  responds  by  laying  her  in  the  heart  of 
his  worshipper,  to  manifest  her  everlastingly 
before  the  gods.  Through  the  court-phrases 
gleams  the  solemn  idea  that  sovereignty  on 
earth  is  no  law  to  itself ;  it  must  follow  the 
ordinances  of  heaven. 

Chinese  insight  early  reached  a  similar 
thought.  Before  the  days  of  Confucius  or  his 
elder  contemporary  Lao-Tsze,  the  wiser  ob¬ 
servers  had  noted  the  uniformity  of  Nature’s 
ways.  Were  not  Heaven  and  Earth  the 
nourishers  of  all  things  ?  Did  not  Heaven  pour 


RELIGION  AND  MORALITY  215 


down  all  kinds  of  influences  upon  the  docile  and 
receptive  Earth  ?  Heaven  was  all-observing, 
steadfast,  impartial;  and  its  “sincerity,” 
seen  in  the  regular  movements  of  the  sun  and 
moon,  or  the  succession  of  the  seasons, 
becomes  for  the  moralist  the  groundwork  of 
the  social  order.  This  daily  course  is  called 
Heaven’s  way  or  path,  the  Tao  (the  highway 
as  distinguished  from  by-tracks),  which  with 
unvarying  energy  maintains  the  scene  of  our 
existence,  and  provides  the  norm  or  pattern 
for  our  conduct.  In  the  hands  of  Lao-Tsze 
this  became  the  symbol  of  a  great  philo¬ 
sophical  conception.  Behind  the  visible  path 
which  all  could  see  lay  the  hidden  Tao, 
untrodden  and  enduring.  Here  was  the 
eternal  source  of  all  things,  for  ever  streaming 
forth  in  orderly  succession,  but  never  vaunting 
itself  or  inviting  attention  by  outbursts  of 
display.  It  was  the  type  for  man  to  follow; 
the  sage,  like  Heaven,  must  have  no  personal 
ends;  he  must  act,  like  the  great  exemplar, 
without  meddling  interference,  leaving  his 
nature  to  fulfil  itself ;  let  him  renounce 
ambition  and  cultivate  humility;  only  one 
who  has  “  forgotten  himself  ”  can  become 
identified  with  Heaven.  “  Can  you  ” — so 
Lao-Tsze  was  said  to  have  asked  an  inquirer 
six  hundred  years  before  Jesus  taught  in 
Galilee — “  Can  you  become  a  little  child  ?  ” 
The  Vedic  seers  were  hardly  less  impressed 
with  the  sense  of  an  orderly  control  in  con¬ 
templating  the  energies  around  them.  Four 


216  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


words  are  used  to  denote  the  institutes  or 
ordinances,  the  fixed  norms  or  standards,  the 
solemn  laws,  and  the  steadfast  path,  according 
to  which  the  rivers  flow,  the  dawn  comes  forth 
after  the  night,  the  sun  traverses  the  sky,  and 
even  the  storm  winds  begin  to  blow.  Of 
these  the  last  named,  the  Rita  (with  its  Zend 
equivalent  Asha),  the  ordered  course  along 
which  all  things  move,  presents  the  least 
abstract,  the  most  mythical  form.  For  here 
is  that  which  exists  before  heaven  and  earth ; 
they  are  born  of  it,  or  even  in  it,  and  its 
domain  is  the  wide  space.  From  it,  likewise, 
the  gods  proceed,  and  the  lofty  pair,  Mitra 
and  Varuna,  with  Aditi  and  her  train,  are 
its  protectors.  But  through  the  mystical 
identity  of  the  order  of  nature  and  the  order 
of  sacrifice  (p.  143),  the  cultus — whether  on 
earth  or  in  heaven — is  also  its  sphere.  Agni, 
the  sacrificial  fire,  the  dear  house -priest,  is 
Rita-born,  and  by  its  aid  carries  the  offerings 
to  heaven.  Such,  also,  is  the  sacred  drink,  the 
Soma,  which  is  borne  in  the  Rita’s  car,  and 
follows  its  ways.  And  the  heavenly  sacri fleers, 
the  Fathers  in  the  radiant  world  above,  have 
grown  according  to  the  Rita,  for  they  know 
and  faithfully  obey  the  law.  Thus  it  becomes 
the  supreme  expression  of  morality,  and  is 
practically  equivalent  with  satya ,  true 
(literally,  that  which  is),  or  good.  Heaven 
and  Earth  are  satya ,  veracious,  they  can  be 
trusted ;  they  are  ritavan ,  faithful  to  the  Path, 
steadfast  in  the  Order.  Not  less  so  is  the 


RELIGION  AND  MORALITY  217 


godly  man ;  he,  too,  is  ritavan  (Zend  ashavan ), 
the  same  word  being  used  to  denote  divine 
holiness  and  human  piety.  And  thus  the 
life  of  gods  and  men,  the  order  of  nature,  the 
ritual  of  worship,  and  daily  duty,  were  all 
bound  together  in  one  principle. 

Rita,  however,  did  not  establish  itself  as  a 
permanent  conception  in  Indian  theology. 
Its  place  was  taken  by  another  idea,  which 
still  sways  the  thought  and  rules  the  lives  of 
hundreds  of  millions  of  believers  in  India  and 
the  Far  East,  Karma ,  or  the  doctrine  of  the 
Deed.  It  is  well  known  that  this  doctrine 
does  not  appear  in  the  Vedic  hymns.  It  is 
first  discussed  as  a  great  mystery  in  the  forest - 
sessions  where  teachers  and  students  met 
together,  where  kings  could  still  instruct 
Brahmans,  and  women  might  speak  in  debate. 
In  the  Brahmana  of  a  Hundred  Paths  it  is 
summed  up  in  a  maxim  which  was  first 
formulated  in  connection  with  ceremonial 
obligation,  but  came  to  have  a  much  wider 
application :  “A  man  is  born  into  the  world 
that  he  has  made  ” ;  to  which  the  Law-books 
added  the  warning :  ■  64  The  Deed  does  not 
,perish.” 

1  Man  is  for  ever  making  his  own  world. 
Each  act,  each  word,  even  each  thought,  adds 
something  to  the  spiritual  fabric  which  he 
is  perpetually  producing.  He  cannot  escape 
the  results  of  his  own  conduct.  The  values 
for  good  or  evil  mount  up  from  hour  to  hour, 
and  their  issues  must  be  fulfilled.  When  this 


218  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


conception  was  carried  through  the  universe, 
the  whole  sphere  of  animated  existence  was 
placed  under  its  sway.  The  life  of  any  single 
person  upon  earth  was  only  an  incident  in  a 
chain  of  lives,  stretching  into  the  distant  past 
as  well  as  into  the  immeasurable  future.  His 
condition  hereafter  would  be  determined  by 
what  he  had  done  before  he  entered  the  state 
that  would  match  his  deed.  Then  his  con¬ 
dition  here  was  also  determined  by  what  he 
had  wrought  in  a  previous  lot.  His  personal 
qualities,  his  health  and  sickness,  his  caste 
and  rank,  his  wealth  or  poverty,  all  precisely 
matched  some  elements  in  the  moral  product 
of  his  past.  These  were,  of  course,  never  all 
precisely  of  one  kind.  They  were  of  mingled 
good  and  evil,  and  each  of  these  would  in 
course  of  time  have  its  appropriate  consequence 
of  joy  and  pain.  For  every  shade  of  guilt 
there  was  a  fitting  punishment,  exactly 
adjusted  in  severity  and  duration,  either  in 
degradation  and  suffering  upon  earth,  or  in 
some  one  of  numerous  hells  below.  And 
similarly  all  good  was  sure  of  its  reward,  as 
happiness  and  prosperity  awaited  it  here,  or 
were  allotted  in  still  richer  measure  for  their 
due  periods  in  the  heavens  that  rose  tier  above 
tier  beyond  the  sky. 

The  doctrine  of  Transmigration  has 
appeared  in  various  forms,  in  very  different 
cultures.  But  nowhere  has  it  swayed  whole 
civilisations  as  it  has  done  in  the  East.  It 
has  expressed  for  innumerable  multitudes  the 


RELIGION  AND  MORALITY  219 


essential  bond  of  morals  and  religion.  There 
were  not  wanting,  indeed,  teachers  who 
criticised  and  rejected  it  when  Gctama  the 
Buddha  passed  to  and  fro  five  hundred  years 
before  our  era.  But  while  he  repudiated  the 
authority  of  the  Vedas,  the  ceremonies  of 
sacrifice,  the  claims  of  the  Brahmans,  and  the 
immortality  of  the  gods,  he  retained  the 
doctrine  of  Karma  at  the  very  core  of  the 
system  of  ethical  culture  which  he  offered  as 
the  way  out  of  the  weary  circle  of  re -birth. 
The  whole  meaning  of  the  universe,  its  cosmic 
periods  of  dissolution  and  evolution,  was 
still  moral ;  and  the  scene  of  our  existence 
came  once  more  into  being  that  the  unex¬ 
hausted  potencies  of  countless  products  of 
the  Deed  from  the  lowest  hell  to  the  topmost 
heaven  might  realise  their  suspended  energy. 
And  when  Buddhism  became  a  religion 
through  the  interpretation  of  the  person  of 
its  founder  in  terms  of  the  Absolute  and 
Eternal,  this  law  of  the  phenomenal  world 
of  space  and  time  remained  beyond  even  his 
power  to  set  aside  or  change. 

The  ethical  element  necessarily  varies  in 
richness  of  content  and  intensity  of  feeling 
in  different  religions.  In  the  classifications 
which  have  been  from  time  to  time  proposed, 
attention  has  often  been  fixed  upon  its  presence 
as  the  marked  characteristic  of  a  group.  Thus 
Prof.  Tiele,  of  Leiden,  proposed  to  treat  the 
higher  religions  of  Revelation  under  two 
heads :  (1)  religions  embodying  a  sacred 


220  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


law,  and  forming  national  communities,  in¬ 
cluding  Taoism,  Confucianism,  Brahmanism, 
Jainism,  Mazdaism,  Mosaism,  Judaism,  and 
(2)  universalistic  communions,  Buddhism, 
Christianity,  and  to  some  extent  Islam. 
Another  writer  forms  a  class  of  Morality- 
Religions  above  the  savage  Nature-Religions, 
and  reckons  in  it  the  religions  of  Mexico  and 
Peru,  the  earliest  Babylonian  (often  called 
Akkadian),  Egyptian,  Chinese,  Hindu,  Persian, 
German,  Roman,  Greek.  All  such  classifica¬ 
tions  are  exposed  to  many  difficulties,  but 
they  at  least  bear  witness  to  the  significance 
of  the  place  which  is  occupied  by  morality 
in  modern  estimates  of  the  worth  of  great 
historic  faiths.  The  aspects  of  any  particular 
development  are  so  manifold,  that  any  at¬ 
tempt  to  establish  a  scale  of  rank  at  once  lays 
itself  open  to  criticism.  Where,  for  example, 
is  Greece  in  Prof.  Tiele’s  scheme  ?  It  is 
thrown  back  into  the  group  of  “  half -ethical 
anthropomorphic  polytheisms.”  But  in  the 
hands  of  poets  and  philosophers,  the  really 
shaping  powers  of  Hellenic  culture,  poly¬ 
theism  was  left  far  behind,  and  on  the  third 
of  the  questions  suggested  above  in  con¬ 
sidering  the  relations  of  morality  and  religion 
(p.  208) — their  attitude  to  ritual  obligation— 
Greek  official  teaching  sometimes  reached  the 
loftiest  heights. 

For  not  only  did  philosophical  and  religious 
communities  like  the  Pythagoreans  enunciate 
such  maxims  as  these :  44  Purity  of  soul  is  the 


RELIGION  AND  MORALITY  221 


only  divine  service,”  or  64  God  has  no  place  on 
earth  more  akin  to  his  nature  than  the  pure 
soul,”  but  the  oracle  of  Delphi  itself  was 
supposed  to  have  affirmed  the  worthlessness 
of  ceremonial  cleansing  without  corresponding 
holiness  of  heart.  Dr.  Farnell  translates  two 
utterances  ascribed  to  the  Pythia  as  follows  : 
44  O  stranger,  if  holy  of  soul,  enter  the  shrine 
of  the  holy  God,  having  but  touched  the 
lustral  water:  lustration  is  an  easy  matter 
for  the  good;  but  all  ocean  with  its  streams 
cannot  cleanse  the  evil  man  ” ;  and  again : 
44  The  temples  of  the  gods  are  open  to  all  good 
men,  nor  is  there  any  need  of  purification; 
no  stain  can  ever  cleave  to  virtue.  But  de¬ 
part,  whosoever  is  baneful  at  heart;  for  thy 
soul  will  never  be  washed  by  the  cleansing  of 
the  body.”  Over  the  sanctuary  of  JEsculapius 
at  Epidaurus, where  so  many  sufferers  thronged 
for  cure  (p.  180),  ran  the  inscription  quoted 
by  Porphyry — 

“  Into  an  odorous  temple  he  who  goes 
Should  pure  and  holy  be ;  but  to  be  wise 
In  what  makes  holiness  is  to  be  pure.” 

The  religion  of  Zarathustra,  on  the  other 
hand,  did  not  maintain  its  primitive  elevation. 
The  prophet’s  Gathas  (p.  191)  summoned  the 
believer  to  live  in  the  fellowship  of  the  Good 
Mind  and  in  obedience  to  the  Most  Excellent 
Order  ( Asha  vahista),  and  the  later  Avesta 
seems  sometimes  to  repeat  their  high  demand  : 


222  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


“  Purity  is  for  man,  next  to  life,  the  greatest 
good;  that  purity  that  is  procured  by  the 
law  of  Mazda  to  him  who  cleanses  his  own  self 
with  good  thoughts,  words,  and  deeds.”  It 
is  the  utterance  of  Ahura  himself.  But  purity 
may  be  interpreted  in  very  different  ways  : 
the  lad  who  walks  about  over  fifteen  years  of 
age  without  the  sacred  girdle  and  sacred  shirt, 
has  no  forgiveness,  for  he  has  64  power  to 
destroy  the  world  of  the  holy  spirit  ” ;  while, 
on  the  other  hand,  to  pull  down  the  scaffold 
on  which  corpses  had  been  deposited  (the 
Persians  employed  neither  burial  nor  crema¬ 
tion)  was  to  destroy  a  centre  of  impure 
contagion,  and  secure  pardon  for  all  sins. 

When  Moses  established  the  administration 
of  justice  at  the  sanctuary  of  Yahweh,  he 
planted  a  powerful  ethical  influence  in  the 
heart  of  the  religion  of  Israel.  No  reader  of 
the  Old  Testament  needs  to  be  reminded  of 
the  prophetic  rebukes  of  a  monarch’s  crimes. 
Nathan  and  David,  Elijah  and  Ahab,  have 
become  universal  types.  The  history  of 
Hebrew  ethics  shows  how  the  conception  of 
morality  gradually  passed  from  the  regulation 
of  external  conduct  into  the  inner  sphere  of 
thought ;  and  the  offender  was  no  longer 
regarded  merely  as  a  member  of  a  tribe  or 
nation  on  which  punishment  might  alight 
collectively ;  he  stood  in  an  immediate 
relation  to  his  God.  Primitive  imagination 
could  rest  content  with  supposing  that  sin 
had  first  entered  the  world  through  the 


RELIGION  AND  MORALITY  223 


subtlety  of  a  talking  snake.  Later  thought 
found  such  a  solution  inadequate  to  enlarged 
moral  experience.  In  the  figure  of  the 
Adversary  or  the  Opposer,  the  Satan,  first 
traceable  in  Israel’s  literature  after  the 
Captivity,  Judaism  admitted  a  moral  dualism 
analogous  to  the  opposition  between  Ahura 
Mazda  and  Anra  Mainyu.  The  Satan  had, 
indeed,  no  creative  power,  though  hordes  of 
demons  were  under  his  sway  in  the  abyss,  and 
were  sent  forth  to  do  the  desolating  work  of 
madness  and  disease.  But  he  was  the  head 
of  a  realm  of  evil  over  against  the  sovereignty 
of  God;  and  the  intensity  of  the  moral  con¬ 
sciousness  of  sin  was  reflected  in  the  mytho- 
logic  form  of  his  warfare  against  the  hosts  of 
heaven. 

Along  a  quite  different  line  of  thought, 
which  may  possibly  have  been  stimulated  from 
the  Greek  side,  the  humanists  of  later  Israel 
endeavoured  to  bring  nature  and  social  life 
under  one  common  conception  of  divine 
Wisdom.  The  earlier  prophecy  had  regarded 
the  physical  world  as  plastic  in  Yahweh’s 
hands,  so  that  its  events — such  as  drought 
or  flood,  the  locust  and  the  blight,  could  be 
made  the  immediate  instruments  of  Israel’s 
discipline.  A  wider  culture  brought  new 
ideas.  There  were  statutes  and  ordinances 
for  the  cosmic  powers  just  as  there  were  for 
communities  of  man.  The  universe  was  the 
product  of  the  divine  thought,  and  the  same 
agency  was  seen  in  the  structure  and  organisa- 


224  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


tion  of  human  societies.  The  order  of  the 
visible  scene  was  due  to  the  presence  and 
control  of  Wisdom,  which  from  the  first  had 
sat  as  a  kind  of  assessor  by  Yahweh’s  side. 
The  moral  order  was  no  less  her  work;  she 
gave  the  sanction  to  all  authority  and  rule; 
4 4  By  me  kings  reign,”  cries  the  poet  in  her 
name,  44  and  princes  decree  justice  ” ;  and  the 
men  of  humble  heart  know  that  their  piety, 
44  the  fear  of  the  Lord,”  is  her  gift,  and  links 
them  in  joyous  fellowship  with  the  stars  on 
high. 

That  Mosaism  started  with  a  vigorous  moral 
conception  of  the  divine  demands,  however 
limited  might  be  its  early  scope,  is  generally 
recognised.  The  gradual  settlement  of  the 
immigrant  tribes  in  the  land  of  Canaan,  the 
appropriation  of  Canaanite  sanctuaries,  and 
the  adoption  of  their  festivals  and  ritual, 
brought  new  influences  which  threatened  the 
ancient  simplicity.  The  voices  of  Hebrew 
prophecy  rang  out  at  Jerusalem  ere  Greek 
thought  had  begun  to  move.  It  was  a  singular 
result  in  Israel’s  history  that  the  great  truths 
of  the  unity  and  spirituality  and  holiness  of 
God,  which  prophecy  had  won  out  of  im¬ 
passioned  experience,  were  confided  for  their 
preservation  to  a  code  of  Priestly  Law  which 
raised  the  elements  of  ritual  and  sacerdotal 
caste  to  their  highest  significance  in  the  nation’s 
life.  But  the  law  which  declared  sacrifice  to  be 
legitimate  only  on  one  altar,  made  room  for 
a  new  development  of  Israel’s  religion.  If 


RELIGION  AND  MORALITY  225 


the  ancient  faith  was  to  be  maintained  by  a 
race  that  spread  from  Babylon  to  Rome,  it 
must  adapt  its  worship  to  new  conditions. 
There  could  be  but  one  temple ;  but  a  meeting¬ 
house  could  be  built  anywhere ;  and  the 
Synagogue  thus  became  the  birthplace  of  the 
congregations  of  the  Christian  Church. 


P 


CHAPTER  VIII 

PROBLEMS  OF  LIFE  AND  DESTINY 

“If  a  man  die,  shall  he  live  again ? ”  The 
question  is  as  old  as  the  Book  of  Job,  but 
the  affirmative  answer  is  much  older.  The 
earliest  human  remains  in  Europe  imply  some 
provision  for  the  dead,  and  it  did  not  occur 
to  the  peoples  of  the  lower  culture  all  over 
the  world  to  doubt  the  reality  of  some  kind 
of  continued  existence.  Did  not  the  living 
still  see  them  in  their  dreams  (p.  86)  ? 

But  this  life  might  be  conceived  in  an  in¬ 
finite  variety  ol  forms.  Where  was  it  passed  ? 
under  what  conditions  ?  what  would  be  its 
privileges  and  its  requirements  ?  how  long 
would  it  last  ?  To  these  and  a  hundred  other 
questions  no  uniform  answers  have  been 
returned;  and  numerous  as  are  the  stories 
of  visits  to  the  other  world,  there  is  little 
agreement  as  to  its  place,  its  scenery,  its  occu¬ 
pations,  its  society,  its  government,  its  duties, 
its  punishments,  or  its  rewards.  Yet  no  field 
of  human  imagination  reflects  more  clearly 
the  stage  of  social  and  moral  development 
which  creates  it.  Into  his  pictures  of  the 
future  man  has  persistently  woven  his  criti- 

226 


» 


LIFE  AND  DESTINY 


227 


cism  of  the  present.  But  the  tenacity  of 
usage  and  convention  in  everything  affecting 
the  dead  has  sometimes  detained  belief  at 
a  much  lower  level  than  the  general  progress 
of  ethical  feeling  might  otherwise  have  sug¬ 
gested.  Religious  thought  does  not  always 
move  forwards  with  equal  speed  over  all  the 
relations  and  possibilities  of  life. 

The  logic  of  the  treatment  of  the  dead  is 
full  of  gaps  and  inconsistencies.  The  same 
people  will  perform  rites  which  rest  upon 
quite  different  theories;  customs  have  run 
together  in  strange  incoherence.  This  may 
be  sometimes  due  to  the  necessity  for  making 
provision  for  different  elements  in  the  person 
which  were  united  while  on  earth.  The 
wealthy  Egyptian  required  an  elaborate  home 
in  the  tomb  for  his  double  or  ka ,  while  his  ba 
started  on  its  perilous  journey  through  the 
mysterious  regions  of  the  world  of  the  dead. 
From  the  ethical  point  of  view,  however,  which 
chiefly  concerns  the  student  of  comparative 
religion,  the  doctrine  of  the  next  life  falls  into 
two  main  divisions,  as  Burton  and  Tylor 
pointed  out  more  than  a  generation  ago — • 
theories  of  continuance,  and  theories  of  retri¬ 
bution.  They  are  connected  by  many  inter¬ 
mediate  stages  of  transition,  and  they  range 
all  the  way  from  the  crudest  conceptions  of 
prolonged  existence  in  the  grave,  up  to 
exalted  solemnities  of  judgment,  of  doom, 
and  of  the  fellowship  of  heaven. 

When  a  man  dies,  where  will  his  spirit  dwell  ? 


228  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


Perhaps  it  will  pass  into  some  animal,  a  bear, 
a  walrus,  or  a  beautiful  bird.  Perhaps  it 
will  haunt  his’  old  home.  In  that  case  it  were 
well  that  he  should  not  die  where  he  has  lived ; 
let  him  be  carried  into  the  open  air  as  death 
approaches,  or  laid  in  the  loneliness  of  the  woods. 
The  Eskimo  of  Greenland  build  a  small  snow 
hut,  the  entrance  of  which  is  closed  as  death 
approaches  that  the  inmate  may  pass  away 
alone.  Dr.  Franz  Boas  relates  that  a  young 
girl  once  sent  for  him  from  such  a  lodging 
a  few  hours  before  her  end,  to  ask  for  some 
tobacco  and  bread,  that  she  might  take  them 
to  her  mother  who  had  died  only  a  few  weeks 
before.  Or  the  connection  between  the  dead 
man  and  his  former  dwelling  may  be  severed 
by  burning  down  the  hut  and  forsaking  the 
locality,  even  though  (as  among  the  Sakais 
of  the  Malay  peninsula)  the  coming  crop  of 
tapioca  or  sugar-cane  should  be  lost  by  de¬ 
parture.  Or  strong  measures  may  be  taken 
with  the  corpse  by  thrashing  it  to  hasten  the 
ejection  of  the  soul;  the  walls  of  the  death- 
chamber  may  be  beaten  with  sticks  to  drive 
it  away;  or  a  professional  functionary  may 
be  invoked  with  his  broom  to  sweep  it  out. 

And  when  the  body  has  been  carried  forth, 
precautions  must  be  taken  to  prevent  the 
spirit  from  finding  its  way  back,  and  barriers 
erected  against  its  return.  Only  occasionally, 
as  in  ancient  Athens,  was  burial  permitted 
in  the  house,  where  the  venerated  dead  could 
still  protect  and  bless  those  whom  they  loved. 


LIFE  AND  DESTINY 


229 


The  tomb  was  sometimes  constructed  to 
resemble  the  home  and  admit  the  members 
of  the  family  together.  Under  the  cliffs  of 
Orvieto  is  an  Etruscan  city  of  the  dead,  where 
the  stone  houses  (usually  with  two  rooms) 
stand  side  by  side  in  streets.  The  prehistoric 
gravemounds  of  Scandinavia  have  disclosed 
sepulchral  burial  chambers,  entered  by  a 
gallery  or  passage,  divided  by  large  slabs 
of  granite  into  alcoves  or  stalls,  round  which 
the  dead  were  seated.  Just  so  does  the 
Eskimo  of  the  present  day  arrange  his  dwelling. 
Those  who  had  lived  in  caves  and  left  their 
dead  there,  retained  the  usage  long  after  they 
had  learned  to  construct  tents  or  build  houses 
for  themselves.  The  chief  was  carried  to 
the  hills,  as  the  barrows  on  our  own  moors 
show,  or  to  the  mountain  top,  where  his  spirit 
blended  perhaps  with  the  spirit  of  the  place 
and  lent  an  additional  awe  to  the  heights ;  or 
to  secure  him  from  disturbance,  as  the  Spanish 
observers  noted  in  Columbia  (S.  America), 
a  river  was  diverted  from  its  course,  his  grave 
was  made  in  its  bed,  and  the  waters,  restored 
to  their  former  channel,  kept  the  secret  safe. 

The  dream  experience  only  provides  the 
world  of  the  dead  with  scenery  and  occupa¬ 
tions  resembling  those  of  common  life,  with 
more  rapidity  of  change  and  mysterious  ease 
of  transformation.  But  when  tribes  have 
migrated  from  one  locality  to  another, — 
and  in  the  vast  reaches  of  prehistoric  time 
such  movements  were  incessant  though  slow 


230  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


— the  various  forces  of  association  in  memory, 
dreaming,  and  tradition,  would  connect  the 
dead  with  the  places  of  the  past.  Sometimes 
the  course  of  travel  might  have  lain  through 
mountain  passes,  or  across  a  river,  or  from 
beyond  the  sea.  A  journey,  or  a  voyage 
was  thus  suggested — Samoans  said  of  a  chief 
that  he  had  44  sailed  ”  ;  to  reach  the  abode  of 
the  dead  might  need  days  of  travel ;  so  shoes 
as  well  as  food  (p.  138)  must  be  provided,  and 
the  fires,  first  kindled  for  the  warmth  of  the 
dweller  in  the  grave  below,  were  continued 
to  light  him  on  his  way.  On  solar  analogies, 
such  as  may  be  found  in  both  hemispheres, 
the  homes  of  the  departed  were  often  assigned 
to  the  East  or  West. 

The  brotherhood  of  sleep  and  death  has 
always  been  recognised,  and  we  still  call  our 
graveyards  46  cemeteries,”  or  sleeping-places. 
The  ancient  Israelite  said  of  his  dead  that 
he  44  slept  with  his  fathers.”  Earth  burial 
suggested  a  locality  beneath  the  ground, 
vast  and  gloomy  like  some  huge  cave.  The 
Mesopotamian  thought  of  it  as  a  city,  ringed 
with  seven  walls;  and  even  the  Hebrew  who 
pictured  the  underworld,  Sheol,  as  a  gigantic 
pit,  sometimes  imagined  it  to  be  approached 
through  gates.  There  lay  the  nerveless  feeble 
forms  of  the  mighty  ones  of  earth.  The 
separate  nations  had  their  several  stations 
allotted  to  them,  where  ghostly  warriors  lay 
dark  and  silent  with  their  ghostly  swords 
around  the  ghostly  thrones  of  ghostly  kings. 


LIFE  AND  DESTINY 


231 


The  entry  of  a  new  comer  from  Babylon  awoke 
a  ghostly  wonder,  and  ghostly  voices  greeted 
him  from  the  dead.  It'  is  a  strange  contrast 
with  the  pageantry  of  the  skies,  where  various 
races,  from  the  Australians  to  the  Hindus 
and  the  Greeks  have  seen  their  forefathers 
looking  down  on  them  as  stars.  So  inveterate 
is  this  belief  that  it  was  found  necessary  to 
obtain  a  certificate  from  the  Astronomer 
Royal  to  refute  the  rumour  that  on  the  night 
on  which  Browning  died  a  new  star  appeared 
in  the  constellation  of  Orion.  The  Milky 
Way  could  thus  be  interpreted  as  the  path 
of  Souls,  and  the  Aurora  Borealis  resolved 
into  the  Dance  of  the  Dead. 

The  transfer  of  souls  through  death  from 
one  kind  of  life  to  another  does  not  necessarily 
involve  any  moral  change.  The  relations 
of  earth  are  resumed  in  the  new  scene.  The 
ancients  Celts  who  placed  letters  to  their 
friends  on  the  pyre  of  a  dead  relative,  or  even 
expected  to  receive  in  the  next  world  the 
repayment  of  loans  in  this,  conceived  existence 
hereafter  on  the  same  plane  as  the  present, 
like  the  modern  Chinaman  who  celebrates  the 
wedding  of  his  spirit-son  with  the  spirit- 
daughter  of  a  suitable  friend,  and  thus  brings 
peace  to  a  tormented  house.  The  spirit-land 
of  Ibo  on  the  lower  Niger  had  its  rivers  and 
forests,  its  hills,  and  towns,  and  roads,  below 
the  ground  like  those  above,  only  more  gloomy. 
In  Tuonela,  the  land  of  the  dead,  Finnic 
imagination  pictured  rivers  of  black  water, 


232  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


with  boisterous  waterfalls  and  dangerous 
whirlpools,  forests  full  of  wild  beasts,  and  fields 
of  grain  which  provided  the  death-worm  with 
his  teeth;  but  it  is  still  homely  enough  for 
Wainamoinen  to  find  the  daughter  of  its  ruler, 
Tuoni,  god  of  death,  busy  with  her  washing. 
The  dead  of  the  Mordvinians,  a  group  of  Ural- 
Altaic  origin  in  the  heart  of  Russia,  are  believed 
to  marry  and  beget  children  as  on  earth. 
Such  conceptions  naturally  resulted  in  a 
continuity  of  occupation,  rank,  and  service. 
The  Spanish  historian,  Herrera,  relates  that 
in  Mexico  44  every  great  man  had  a  priest  or 
chaplain  to  perform  the  ceremonies  of  his 
house,  and  when  he  died  the  chaplain  was 
called  to  serve  him  in  the  same  manner,  and 
so  were  his  master  of  the  household,  his  cup¬ 
bearer,  his  dwarf,  the  deformed  people  he 
kept,  and  the  brothers  that  had  served  him, 
for  they  looked  upon  it  as  a  piece  of  grandeur 
to  be  served  by  them,  and  said  they  were 
going  to  keep  house  in  the  other  world.” 
Yet  in  Mexico,  as  will  be  seen  immediately, 
the  differentiation  of  the  future  lot  had  already 
begun. 

The  chief  is  usually  sure  of  admission  into 
high  society  in  the  next  world.  The  Maori 
paradise  was  a  paradise  of  the  aristocracy; 
heroes  and  men  of  lofty  lineage  went  to  the 
skies.  But  common  souls,  in  passing  from  one 
division  to  another  of  the  New  Zealand  Hades, 
lost  a  little  of  their  vitality  each  time,  until 
at  last  they  died  outright.  Polynesian  fancy 


LIFE  AND  DESTINY 


233 


sometimes  mingled  the  seen  and  the  unseen 
in  strange  juxtaposition.  The  Fijian  route 
to  the  world  beyond,  Mbulu,  lay  through  a 
real  town  with  ordinary  inhabitants.  But 
it  had  also  an  invisible  portion,  where  dwelt 
the  family  of  Samuyalo  who  held  inquest  on 
departed  spirits.  If  this  trial  was  surmounted, 
a  second  judgment  awaited  them  at  the  hands 
of  Ndengei,  by  which  they  were  assigned  to 
one  or  other  of  the  divisions  of  the  under¬ 
world.  A  great  chief  who  had  destroyed  many 
towns  and  slain  many  in  war,  passed  to 
Mburotu,  where  amid  pleasant  glades  the 
occupants  lived  in  families  and  planted  and 
fought.  But  bachelors,  those  who  had  killed 
no  enemy,  or  would  not  have  their  ears  bored, 
women  who  refused  to  be  tatooed,  and  gener¬ 
ally  those  who  had  not  lived  so  as  to  please 
the  gods,  were  doomed  to  various  forms  of 
penal  suffering  and  degradation. 

Courage  and  daring  are  of  immense  social 
importance,  and  are  among  the  most  important 
elements  in  primitive  virtue.  Strength,  valour, 
skill  in  war  and  hunting,  lift  men  into  leader¬ 
ship,  and  the  pre-eminence  won  here  is  retained 
hereafter.  But  these  qualities  are  not  limited 
to  chiefs.  The  happy  land  of  the  Greenlanders, 
Torngarsuk,  received  the  valiant  workers, 
men  who  had  taken  many  whales  and  seals, 
borne  much  hardship,  and  been  drowned 
at  sea,  and  women  who  had  died  in  child¬ 
birth.  A  mild  and  unwarlike  tribe  in  Guate¬ 
mala  might  be  persuaded  that  to  die  by  any 


234  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


other  than  a  natural  death  was  to  forfeit 
all  hope  of  life  hereafter,  the  bodies  of  the 
slain  being  left  to  the  vultures  and  wild 
beasts.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Nicaraguan 
Aztecs  declared  that  the  shades  of  those  who 
died  in  their  beds  went  downwards  till  they 
came  to  nought ;  while  those  who  fell  in  battle 
for  their  country  passed  to  the  East,  to  the 
rising  of  the  sun. 

Such  was  the  destiny,  also,  of  the  Mexican 
warriors,  who  daily  climbed  to  the  zenith  by, 
the  sun’s  side  with  shouts  of  joy,  and  there 
resigned  their  charge  to  the  celestial  women, 
who  had  given  their  lives  in  childbed.  Mer¬ 
chants,  too,  were  in  the  procession,  who  had 
faced  risk  and  peril  and  died  upon  their 
journeys.  But  this  privilege  lasted  only 
four  years,  when  they  became  birds  of  beauti¬ 
ful  plumage  in  the  celestial  gardens.  In  the 
far  East,  in  the  abode  of  Tlaloc,  god  of  waters, 
were  those  who  had  died  by  lightning  or 
at  sea,  sufferers  from  various  diseases,  and 
children  who  had  been  sacrificed  to  the  water- 
deities.  These  last,  after  a  happy  time,  were 
born  again;  the  rest  passed  in  due  course 
to  the  underworld  of  Mictlan  in  the  far  north, 
“  a  most  obscure  land,  where  light  cometh  not, 
and  whence  none  can  ever  return.”  There 
the  rich  were  still  rich,  and  the  slaves  still 
slaves.  But  their  term  was  short.  Mictlan 
had  nine  divisions,  and  at  the  end  of  the  fourth 
year  the  spirit  reached  the  ninth  and  ceased 
to  be. 


LIFE  AND  DESTINY 


235 


This  curious  distribution  has  little  moral 
significance,  save  for  its  recognition  of  valour, 
as  in  the  Teutonic  welcome  of  the  warrior 
into  Valhalla,  or  of  social  service,  as  in  the 
case  of  those  who  give  their  lives  for  the 
community,  the  merchant  like  the  Greenland 
whaler,  or  the  mothers  who  did  not  survive 
their  labour.  But  the  beginnings  of  ethical 
discrimination  sometimes  present  themselves 
in  very  much  more  simply  organised  com¬ 
munities.  A  rude  social  justice  expresses 
itself  in  the  belief  of  the  Kaupuis  of  Assam 
that  a  murdered  man  shall  have  his  murderer 
for  his  slave  in  the  next  life.  The  Chippewa ys 
predict  that  the  souls  of  the  wicked  will  be 
pursued  by  phantoms  of  the  persons  they 
have  injured ;  and  horses  and  dogs  which  have 
been  ill-treated  will  torment  their  tormentors. 
Murder,  theft,  lying,  adultery,  draw  down  a 
singular  chastisement  in  the  Banks  Islands. 
The  spirits  of  the  dead  assemble  on  the  road 
to  Panoi,  when  each  fresh  comer  is  torn  to 
pieces  and  put  together  again.  Then  the 
injured  man  has  his  chance.  He  seizes  a 
part  of  the  dismembered  soul,  so  that  it 
cannot  be  reconstructed,  or  at  least  suffers 
permanent  mutilation.  No  judge  presides 
over  the  process,  no  law  regulates  it ;  punish¬ 
ment  is  still  a  private  affair.  But  the  entry 
into  the  new  life  is  not  unconditional.  The 
American  Choctaws  conceived  their  dead  to 
journey  to  the  east,  till  they  reached  the 
summit  of  a  hill.  There  a  long  pine-trunk, 


236  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


smooth  and  slippery,  stretched  over  the 
river  of  death  below  to  the  next  hill -topi 
The  just  passed  over  safely  and  entered 
paradise,  the  wicked  fell  off  into  the  stream 
beneath.  It  was  a  self-acting  test,  which 
needed  not  the  prior  ordeal  of  the  Avestan 
balance  under  Mithra  and  Rashnu  at  the 
Chinvat  bridge  (p.  9). 

Sometimes  a  new  religious  motive  is  more  or 
less  plainly  apparent.  Even  the  rude  Fijian 
award  depended  in  some  way  on  the  satis¬ 
faction  of  the  gods.  The  Tonga  Islanders 
were  more  explicit ;  neglect  of  the  gods  and 
failure  to  present  due  offerings  would  involve 
penalties  hereafter.  The  sun-worshipping 
people  of  Achalaque  in  Florida  placed  men 
of  good  life  and  pious  service  and  charity  to 
the  poor  in  the  sky  as  stars,  while  the  wicked 
languished  in  misery  among  mountain  preci¬ 
pices  and  wild  beasts.  Two  centuries  ago 
Bosman  heard  some  of  the  negroes  on  the 
Guinea  coast  tell  of  a  river  in  the  heart  of 
the  land  where  they  would  be  asked  by  the 
divine  judge  if  they  had  duly  kept  the  holy 
days,  abstained  from  forbidden  meats,  and 
maintained  their  oaths  inviolate,  and  those 
who  could  not  answer  rightly  would  be 
drowned.  Such  anticipations  really  introduce 
a  fresh  principle.  Above  the  tribal  morality, 
the  custom  of  the  clan,  rises  an  obligation 
of  no  obvious  and  immediate  use ;  even  ritual 
practice,  the  observance  of  special  seasons, 
or  of  proper  taboos,  the  offering  of  prescribed 


LIFE  AND  DESTINY 


237 


sacrifice,  may  create  new  standards  of  order 
in  conformity  with  a  higher  will.  They  supply 
the  groundwork  on  which  the  prophet  may 
build  the  temple  of  the  ideal. 

The  ancient  Semitic  cultures  formulated  no 
general  doctrine  of  immortality  in  the  higher 
sense  of  the  word.  Faint  traces  of  a  hope 
of  resurrection  appear  here  and  there  in 
Babylonian  texts ;  but  there  is  no  judgment 
beyond  the  grave;  the  chastisements  of  the 
gods  arrive  in  this  life ;  and  it  is  only  occasion¬ 
ally  that  the  fellowship  of  heaven  becomes 
the  privilege  of  the  great.  In  Israel  the  higher 
prophecy  from  Amos  onward  interprets 
“  Yahweh’s  day  ”  as  a  day  of  doom  instead 
of  victory;  but  the  divine  judgment  would 
alight  on  the  whole  people,  and  would  be 
realised  in  no  future  life  but  in  some  over¬ 
whelming  national  catastrophe.  In  Egypt  the 
destiny  of  the  dead  was  already  individualised. 
Around  it  gathered  the  solemnities  of  the 
Osirian  judgment-seat  (p.  8);  the  ritual  and 
the  ethical  demands  of  the  forty-two  assessors 
show  the  moral  tests  advancing  through  the 
ceremonial.  The  believer  who  passed  safely 
through  the  ordeal  of  the  balance  and  was 
duly  fortified  with  the  proper  spells,  was 
mystically  identified  with  Osiris  as  the 
“  justified,”  and  different  texts  present  differ¬ 
ent  types  of  future  bliss.  He  might  find  a 
home  in  the  fields  of  Ialu,  where  numerous 
servants  answered  to  his  call,  and  he  feasted 
on  the  magic  corn.  Or  a  fresh  form  might  be 


238  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


provided  for  him,  when  he  was  washed  with 
pure  water  at  the  meshken  or  place  of  new 
birth.  Mysterious  transformations  assimi¬ 
lated  him  with  various  gods ;  or  he  was 
admitted  on  to  the  sun-bark  among  the 
worshippers  of  Re,  and  fed  on  his  words. 
But  the  guilty  souls  were  subjected  to  un¬ 
speakable  torments ;  there  were  magistrates 
to  measure  the  duration  of  those  appointed 
for  extinction,  and  at  the  allotted  time  they 
were  destroyed. 

Egypt,  thought  Herodotus,  had  been  the 
teacher  of  immortality  to  Greece.  The  state¬ 
ment  is  at  least  interesting  as  a  sign  that 
in  the  traveller’s  view  the  Hellenic  faith  of 
his  day  possessed  some  analogies  with  the 
Egyptian.  The  ethical  element  in  it,  at  any 
rate,  was  gaining  more  and  more  force.  In 
Homer  Hades,  who  is  after  all  another  form 
of  Zeus  in  the  underworld,  is  sovereign,  but 
not  judge,  of  the  nether  realm.  The  Erin- 
nyes,  who  are  originally  ghosts  of  the  dead, 
inflict  their  punishments  mostly  in  the  life 
of  earth;  only  for  broken  oaths  is  penalty 
imposed  below;  and  Tartarus,  in  the  lowest 
deep,  is  reserved  for  the  giant  Titans  who  had 
challenged  the  majesty  of  heaven.  In  the 
stony  asphodel  meadow  Achilles  is  but  a 
shade  among  the  rest ;  if  Menelaus  is  ad¬ 
mitted  to  the  Elysian  plain,  it  is  no  superior 
valour  but  aristocratic  connection  which 
wins  him  his  place.  Rare  is  the  allusion  to 
a  judgment;  the  tribunal  of  Minos,  son  of 


LIFE  AND  DESTINY 


239 


Zeus,  may  be  the  moralising  addition  of  some 
later  bard. 

But  in  the  fifth  century  fresh  influences 
are  at  work.  Pythagoras  has  founded  his 
communities,  half  philosophical,  half  religious. 
The  higher  thought  has  become  markedly 
monotheistic,  and  Orphism  with  its  rude 
sacrament  (p.  147)  has  helped  to  develop 
conceptions  of  fellowship  with  deity  which 
made  new  hopes  for  the  future  possible. 
So  Pindar,  nearest  of  kin  among  Greek  poets 
to  the  prophetio  voices  of  Israel,  emphasises 
the  retributive  government  of  God.  Man  may 
be  nothing  more  than  “  a  dream  of  a  shadow,” 
nevertheless  he  is  not  too  insignificant  to 
escape  the  dooms  of  heaven  upon  his  guilt, 
and  if  there  is  requital  for  evil  there  are  also 
happy  islands  for  the  blest.  The  ethical 
leaven  is  already  powerfully  at  work.  The 
language  of  Cebes  and  Simmias  in  Plato’s 
dialogue  of  the  Phcedo  shows,  however,  that 
the  belief  was  by  no  means  universal;  and 
the  beautiful  sepulchral  reliefs  at  Athens 
give  no  hint  of  that  august  tribunal  of  Minos, 
Rhadamanthus  and  iEacus,  which  Plato  pic¬ 
tures  as  engaged  in  judging  souls. 

But  the  great  mysteries  of  Eleusis  certainly 
fostered  the  hope  of  immortality.  The  con¬ 
viction  grew  stronger  that  the  initiated  would 
have  a  happier  lot  in  the  life  to  come,  so  that 
Diogenes  sarcastically  inquired  whether  an 
initiated  robber  would  be  better  off  than  an 
uninitiated  honest  man.  The  inscriptions  of 


240  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


the  last  centuries  before  our  era  show  nothing 
like  the  consensus  of  feeling  in  an  Egyptian 
cemetery  or  a  modern  English  graveyard. 
The  soul  is  piously  committed  to  the  ether, 
or,  if  there  be  rewards  in  the  realm  below, 
is  confided  to  Persephone;  or  it  is  reverently 
placed  among  the  stars,  in  the  councils  of  the 
immortals,  or  in  the  home  of  the  gods.  Such 
were  the  popular  conventions.  Philosophical 
speculation  gathered  round  the  idea  of  trans¬ 
migration,  or  pleaded  for  at  least  a  continuance 
of  consciousness  till  the  great  conflagration 
which  should  end  the  world;  while  Orphic 
religion  held  out  the  hope  that  the  soul, 
entangled  in  this  earthly  scene,  might  after 
long  discipline  rise  once  more  to  its  home  with 
God. 

The  theories  of  continuance  all  assume  that 
the  world  will  go  upon  its  usual  way.  Genera¬ 
tion  will  follow  generation  in  this  life,  but 
the  lower  culture  does  not  ask  what  will 
happen  in  the  next.  It  cannot  take  big 
time -surveys,  like  the  Egyptian  4 4  millions 
of  years  ”  or  the  Hebrew  44  ages  of  ages.” 
The  future  will  be  like  the  present,  as  the 
present  has  been  like  the  past.  Imagination 
can  conceive  a  beginning,  it  does  not  at  first 
advance  to  an  end.  But  the  development  of 
astronomy  in  Babylonia,  with  the  discovery  of 
regular  periodicities  in  Nature,  seems  to  have 
suggested  the  idea  of  a  great  World-Year, 
an  immense  period  beginning  with  creation, 
which  would  be  brought  to  an  end  by  some 


LIFE  AND  DESTINY 


241 


great  catastrophe  such  as  flood  or  fire.  The 
flood  had  already  taken  place.  Traditions 
of  it  floated  to  India  and  Greece ;  they  were 
incorporated  in  ancient  Hebrew  story.  After 
another  immense  revolution  of  time  would 
there  be  a  similar  close  ?  There  is  some 
evidence  that  this  was  part  of  Babylonian 
teaching  in  the  days  of  Berosus,  in  the  middle 
of  the  third  century  b.c.  (p.  39),  but  it  has 
not  yet  been  discovered  in  the  ancient  cunei¬ 
form  texts.  The  next  agency  of  dissolution 
would  be  heat.  It  was  part  of  early  Buddhist 
speculation,  and  lodged  itself  in  Indian 
thought ;  and  from  the  days  of  Pythagoras, 
in  the  sixth  century  b.c.,  it  formed  part  of 
the  Greek  philosophical  outlook  in  different 
schools  towards  the  44  last  things.”  When  the 
next  periodic  destruction  took  place,  what 
would  happen  ?  According  to  one  answer 
the  restoration  of  all  things  would  set  in, 
and  the  entire  cycle  would  be  repeated  over 
again.  Eudemus,  a  pupil  of  Aristotle,  is 
said  to  have  observed  in  one  of  his  lectures 
that  if  the  Pythagoreans  were  to  be  trusted, 
his  audience  would  have  the  privilege  of 
hearing  him  again :  44  You  will  be  sitting 
there  in  the  same  way,  and  I  shall  be  telling 
you  my  story,  holding  my  little  stick,  and 
^everything  else  will  go  on  the  same.” 

This  mechanical  reproduction  of  a  whole 
previous  age  down  to  its  minutest  details  did 
not,  however,  really  engage  the  higher  Greek 
thought.  That  was  chiefly  occupied  with  the 
Q 


242  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


abiding  contrast  between  that  which  is  and 
that  which  appears  ;  how  could  the  ultimate 
Unity  present  itself  in  such  infinite  diversity  ? 
what  was  the  relation  of  the  world  of  change 
and  succession  to  the  enduring  substance  that 
lay  behind  ?  In  such  questions  man  and  his 
destiny  had  but  a  small  share.  Pindar  might 
sing  how  “  God  accomplisheth  all  ends  accord¬ 
ing  to  his  wish;  God  who  overtaketh  the 
winged  eagle  and  outstrippeth  the  dolphin 
of  the  sea,  and  layeth  low  many  a  mortal  in 
his  haughtiness,  while  to  others  he  giveth 
glory  unspeakable  :  if  any  man  expect  that 
in  doing  ought  he  shall  be  unseen  of  God,  he 
erreth.”  The  tragedians  might  wrestle  with 
dark  problems  of  crime  and  fate ;  and  poetry 
and  philosophy  might  agree  in  presenting  the 
world  as  the  scene  of  a  divine  thought,  the 
manifestation  of  a  divine  energy.  Regu¬ 
larities,  fixities,  invariable  successions,  pointed 
to  a  definite  order,  divinely  maintained.  But 
to  what  did  it  lead  ?  What  place  was  there 
in  it  for  man  ?  His  future  might  be  moral¬ 
ised  ;  the  unethical  Hades  of  Homer  might  be 
replaced  by  the  judgment-scenes  of  Plato ; 
but  no  world-process  is  suggested  for  the 
elimination  of  evil  or  the  fulfilment  of  any 
divine  end.  Plato  might  throw  out  the  hint 
that  Delphi  should  become  the  interpreter  of 
religion  to  all  mankind ;  the  mysteries  might 
be  opened  to  slave  as  well  as  freeman,  and 
might  even  admit  those  who  were  not  of 
Hellenic  race;  but  there  were  no  prophet’s 


LIFE  AND  DESTINY 


243 


glimpses  of  a  purpose  leading  to  some  all- 
embracing  goal.  Zeus  orders  all  as  he  wills. 
Individuals  are  punished,  but  the  misdeeds, 
like  the  sufferings  or  sorrows  of  man,  are  lost 
in  the  harmonious  majesty  of  the  Whole. 

Indian  thought,  as  has  been  already  indi¬ 
cated,  worked  out  a  complete  identification 
of  life  with  the  moral  order  by  means  of  the 
doctrine  of  the  Deed  (p.  217).  The  scheme 
of  transmigration  took  up  the  earlier  ideas 
of  the  elder  thinkers.  The  Yedic  poets  had 
told  of  the  land  of  Yama,  who  was  sometimes 
presented  as  the  first  man  to  die  and  enter  the 
heavenly  world.  In  one  hymn  he  is  associated 
with  Varuna  in  the  highest  heaven,  where  the 
pious  live  from  age  to  age,  and  are  sometimes 
identified  with  the  sun’s  rays  or  the  stars. 
There  kindred  were  gathered,  and  warriors 
and  poets  received  their  reward,  and  the 
devout  realised  the  object  of  their  prayers; 
and  Yama  sat  under  a  tree  of  goodly  leaves, 
drinking  with  the  gods  the  life-giving  soma- 
juice,  father  and  master  of  the  house,  tending 
the  heavenly  sires.  Deep  below  was  the  dark 
pit  for  those  who  would  not  sacrifice  to  Indra, 
or  persecuted  his  worshippers.  There  were 
fiends  of  various  kinds  to  torment  the  wicked, 
the  untruthful,  or  the  seducer.  But  there  are 
no  traces  of  any  specific  judgment,  with 
definite  awards  of  heaven  and  hell.  In  the 
later  scheme  of  life  founded  on  the  conception 
of  Karma  such  a  tribunal  might  seem  un¬ 
necessary  :  the  product  of  the  past  works 


244  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


out  its  own  result.  But  as  Buddhist  folk¬ 
lore  shows,  popular  theology  required  the 
pronouncement  of  a  judge,  and  Yama 
took  his  place  as  Lord  of  hell  and  King  of 
Righteousness. 

By  what  channels  the  doctrine  of  successive 
world-ages  entered  Hindu  religion  cannot  be 
definitely  determined.  Early  Buddhist  teach¬ 
ing  assumes  it  as  familiar,  though  it  is  not 
included  in  the  prior  Brahmanical  literature; 
and  minutely  describes  the  great  conflagration 
which  will  consume  the  universe  through  the 
heat  engendered  by  the  appearance  of  seven 
suns.  Karma,  however,  could  not  be  de¬ 
stroyed.  No  fire  could  burn  it,  nor  could  the 
other  agencies  of  dissolution,  like  water  or 
wind,  drown  or  disperse  it.  It  must  proceed 
unerringly  to  its  results.  These  might  be 
for  a  time  suspended,  they  could  not  be 
frustrated  for  ever.  Their  energies  lay  latent, 
waiting  their  opportunity.  So  a  new  world 
would  arise  to  provide  the  means  and  the  field 
for  their  operation,  and  from  age  to  age, 
through  seasons  of  dissolution  and  restoration, 
with  intervals  of  incalculable  time,  the  endless 
process  would  fulfil  its  round.  This  would 
be  no  literal  repetition.  The  history  of  a 
new  world -age  would  be  quite  fresh,  for  the 
potencies  of  Karma  were  of  infinite  variety, 
and  were  for  ever  being  re-shaped,  cancelled, 
or  extended  by  the  action  of  the  new  person¬ 
alities — divine,  human,  demonic — (reincarna¬ 
tion  might  also  take  place  in  animal  or  plant) 


LIFE  AND  DESTINY 


245 


— in  which  they  were  embodied.  But  the 
immense  series  led  to  nothing.  Buddhist 
imagination  filled  the  universe  with  worlds, 
each  with  its  own  systems  of  heaven  and  hell, 
and  projected  aeons  upon  aeons  into  im¬ 
measurable  time,  but  the  sequence  pointed 
to  no  goal,  for  what  could  arrest  the  inexorable 
succession  ?  Was  there  any  escape  from  its 
law  ? 

To  that  question  different  answers  were 
returned  by  different  teachers.  The  forest- 
sages  had  already  pleaded  for  the  recognition 
of  the  identity  of  the  self  within  the  heart 
with  the  Universal  Self  (p.  60).  There  was 
the  path  by  which  the  phenomenal  scene 
could  be  transcended,  and  the  soul  brought 
into  its  true  fellowship  with  the  Infinite 
Being,  Intelligence,  and  Joy.  But  inasmuch 
as  this  deliverance  was  only  realised  by  a 
few,  and  could  not  be  self-wrought,  it  must 
be  the  result  of  a  divine  election;  they  only 
could  attain  it  whom  the  Self  chose  as  his 
own.  With  its  repudiation  of  all  ontological 
ideas  of  soul,  or  substance,  or  universal  Self, 
early  Buddhism  threw  the  whole  task  of 
achieving  emancipation  on  the  individual, 
who  must  himself  win  the  higher  insight  and 
discipline  his  character  with  no  aid  but  that 
of  the  Teacher  and  his  example.  The  passion 
for  the  salvation  of  the  world  might  generate 
an  unexampled  missionary  activity,  tran¬ 
scending  all  bounds  of  caste  and  race.  It 
might  express  itself  in  singularly  compre- 


246  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


hensive  vows  such  as  these,  which  were 
carried  from  China  to  Japan  in  the  seventh 
century  a.d.,  and  are  still  part  of  Buddhist 
devotion :  “  There  are  beings  without  limit, 
let  me  take  the  vow  to  take  them  all  unto 
the  further  shore :  there  are  depravities 
without  number,  let  me  take  the  vow  to 
extinguish  them  all  :  there  are  truths  without 
end,  let  me  take  the  vow  to  know  them  all  : 
there  is  the  way  of  Buddha  without  com¬ 
parison,  let  me  make  the  vow  to  accomplish 
it.”  But  only  the  wisdom  of  Amida,  All- 
Merciful  and  All-Potent  (p.  17),  could  avail 
to  harmonise  the  issues  of  Karma  with  the 
operations  of  grace,  and  carry  the  world- 
process  to  the  goal  of  universal  salvation. 

The  theologians  and  philosophers  of  India 
might  devise  various  methods  for  the  be¬ 
liever’s  escape  from  the  round  of  re-births; 
but  on  the  ecclesiastical  side  they  never 
surmounted  the  practical  limitation  of  nation¬ 
ality,  or  sought  to  address  themselves  to  the 
world  at  large ;  while  the  mystics  who  more 
easily  passed  the  bounds  of  race  usually 
lacked  the  aggressive  energy  which  demanded 
the  conquest  and  suppression  of  evil  and  the 
assurance  of  the  victory  of  good.  It  was 
reserved  for  the  Persian  thinkers,  led  by 
Zarathustra,  to  work  out  a  scheme  for  the 
ultimate  overthrow  of  the  power  of  “  the 
Lie”  (p.  211).  Egyptian  theology  had  im¬ 
personated  the  forces  of  evil  in  Set.  There 
were  the  constant  oppositions  of  darkness 


LIFE  AND  DESTINY 


247 


and  light,  of  sickness  and  health,  of  the 
desert  against  fertility,  of  drought  against 
the  Nile,  of  foreign  lands  against  Egypt. 
Mythically,  the  antagonism  between  Set  and 
his  brother  Osiris  was  continued  by  Isis’  son 
Horus.  It  was  renewed  again  and  again, 
and  Set  was  for  ever  defeated,  yet  always 
returned  afresh  to  the  strife.  But  no  demand 
was  raised  for  his  elimination.  Osiris  had 
passed  into  the  land  of  Amenti,  where  Set 
could  trouble  him  no  more.  And  apparently 
the  later  identification  of  the  deceased  with 
Osiris  meant  that  for  him,  too,  the  powers 
of  death  and  evil  were  overcome.  But  this 
did  not  affect  Set’s  activity  in  the  existing 
scene,  where  the  strife  continued  over  the 
survivors  day  by  day.  The  insight  of  the 
Iranian  prophet  could  not  admit  this  division 
of  spheres,  and  demanded  not  only  new 
heavens,  but  also  a  new  earth,  where  evil 
should  have  no  more  power,  and  the  Righteous 
Order,  the  Good  Mind,  the  Bounteous  Spirit, 
and  the  rest  of  the  Immortals,  should  be  the 
unchallenged  ministers  of  Ahura’s  rule. 

The  history  of  the  world,  accordingly,  was 
ultimately  arranged  in  four  periods  of  three 
thousand  years  each.  The  life  of  Zarathustra 
closed  the  third.  At  the  end  of  the  fourth 
the  great  era  of  the  Frasho-kereti ,  the  entry 
into  a  new  age  and  a  new  scene,  would  arrive. 
It  would  be  preceded  at  the  close  of  each 
millennial  series  by  the  advent  of  a  deliverer, 
wondrously  born  of  Zarathustra’s  seed.  During 


248  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 

the  third  of  these,  the  last  of  the  whole  twelve, 
the  ancient  serpent  would  be  loosed  to  ravage 
Ahura  Mazda’s  good  creation.  But  the 
Saoshyant  or  “  Saviour,”  the  greatest  of  the 
three  successors  of  the  prophet,  would  bring 
about  the  general  resurrection.  From  the 
Home  of  Song  and  from  the  hells  of  evil 
thought  and  word  and  deed  the  spirits  of  the 
dead  would  resume  their  bodies.  Families 
would  be  reunited  in  preparation  for  the  last 
purifying  pain.  For  a  mighty  conflagration 
would  take  place;  the  mountains  would  be 
dissolved  with  fervent  heat,  and  the  whole 
multitude  of  the  human  race  would  be  over¬ 
flowed  by  the  molten  metal  for  three  days. 
The  righteous  would  pass  through  it  like  a 
bath  of  milk ;  the  evil  would  be  purged  of  the 
last  impulses  to  sin.  Saoshyant  and  his 
helpers  would  dispense  the  drink  of  immor¬ 
tality,  and  the  final  conflict  with  the  powers 
of  evil  would  begin.  Anra  Mainyu,  the  great 
Serpent,  with  all  their  satellites  and  the 
multitude  of  the  demonic  hosts,  should  be 
finally  driven  into  hell  and  consumed  in  the 
cleansing  flame ;  and  hell  itself  should  be 
“  brought  back  for  the  enlargement  of  the 
world.” 

The  Iranian  Apocalypse  is  not  the  only 
presentation  of  conflict  and  victory  in  the 
widespread  Indo-Germanic  group.  The  Old 
Teutonic  religion  produced  its  Volospa,  the 
seer’s  high  song  of  creation  and  the  overthrow 
of  evil.  Here  is  in  brief  the  story  of  the 


LIFE  AND  DESTINY 


249 


great  world-drama,  the  degeneracy  of  man, 
the  conflicts  of  the  gods.  The  universe  slowly 
surges  to  its  end;  there  are  portents  in  the 
sky,  disorders  on  the  earth,  till  the  whole 
frame  of  things  dissolves  and  all  goes  up  in 
flame.  But  a  new  vision  dawns  :  44 1  behold 
earth  rise  again  with  its  evergreen  forests 
out  of  the  deep ;  the  fields  shall  yield  unsown ; 
all  evil  shall  be  amended;  Balder  shall  come 
back.  I  see  a  hall,  brighter  than  the  sun, 
shingled  with  gold,  standing  on  Gem-lea. 
The  righteous  shall  dwell  therein  and  live  in 
bliss  for  ever.  The  Powerful  One  comes  to 
hold  high  judgment,  the  Mighty  One  from 
above  who  rules  over  all,  and  the  dark  dragon 
who  flies  over  the  earth  with  corpses  on 
his  wings  is  driven  from  the  scene  and 
slinks  away.”  There  are  possibly  Christian 
touches  here  and  there,  but  the  substantial 
independence  of  the  poet  seems  assured. 

Above  the  theories  of  world-continuance 
and  world-cycles  must  be  ranked  those  of  a 
world-goal,  which  imply  more  or  less  clearly 
the  conception  of  a  world-purpose.  The 
supreme  expression  of  this  in  religious  litera¬ 
ture  is  found  in  the  Christian  Bible.  The 
prophecy  of  Zarathustra  belonged  to  the  same 
high  ethical  order  as  that  of  Israel.  How 
much  the  Apocalyptic  hopes  of  the  later 
Judaism  were  stimulated  by  contact  with 
Persian  thought  cannot  be  precisely  defined : 
the  estimates  of  careful  scholars  differ.  But 
there  is  no  doubt  whatever  of  the  dependence 


250  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


of  Christianity  upon  Jewish  Messianic  ex¬ 
pectation.  The  title  of  its  founder,  Christ, 
is  the  Greek  equivalent  of  the  Jewish  term 
Messiah,  or  44  Anointed.”  Its  pictures  of 
human  destiny,  of  resurrection,  of  judgment, 
of  one  world  where  the  righteous  shine  like 
the  sun,  and  another  full  of  fire  that  is  not 
quenched,  are  pictures  drawn  by  Jewish 
hands.  Its  promises  of  the  Advent  of  the 
Son  of  Man  in  clouds  of  glory  from  the  sky, 
who  shall  summon  the  nations  to  his  great 
assize,  are  couched  in  the  language  of  earlier 
Jewish  books.  For  one  religion  builds  upon 
another,  and  must  use  the  speech  of  its 
country  and  its  time.  Its  forms  must,  there¬ 
fore,  necessarily  change  from  age  to  age,  as 
the  advance  of  knowledge  and  the  widening 
of  experience  suggest  new  problems  and  call 
for  fresh  solutions.  But  it  will  always  embody 
man’s  highest  thought  concerning  the  mys¬ 
teries  that  surround  him,  and  will  express 
his  finest  attitude  to  life.  Its  beliefs  may  be 
gradually  modified  ;  its  specific  institutions 
may  lose  their  power ;  but  history  shows  it  to 
be  among  the  most  permanent  of  social  forces, 
and  the  most  effective  agent  for  the  slow 
elevation  of  the  race. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Out  of  the  immense  literature  produced  since  Max  Muller’s 
Essay  on  Comparative  Mythology  (1856)  only  a  small  number 
of  the  most  important  books  can  be  here  named,  and  the  list 
is  limited  to  works  in  English.  Superior  figures  attached  to 
titles  indicate  the  edition. 

General  Introduction.— Tylor,  Primitive  Culture 4  (2 
vols.  1903);  Max  Muller,  Introd .  to  the  Science  of  Religion 
(1873),  Hibbert  Lectures  (1878),  Gifford  Lectures  (4  vols.  1889- 
93);  W.  Robertson  Smith,  Lectures  on  the  Religion  of  the 
Semites 2  (1902);  J.  G.  Frazer,  The  Golden  Bough*  (now  in 
course  of  publication) ;  A.  Lang,  Myth,  Ritual  and  Religion 2 
(2  vols.  1899),  The  Making  of  Religion2,  (1900),  Magic  and 
Religion  (1901);  Goblet  d’Alviella,  Origin  and  Growth  of  the 
Conception  of  God  (Hibbert  Lectures,  1892);  Tiele,  Elements 
of  the  Science  of  Religion  (2  vols.  1897);  F.  B.  Jevons, 
Introduction  to  the  History  of  Religion 2  (1902);  Crawley,  The 
Mystic  Rose  (1902),  The  Tree  of  Life  (1905);  Farnell,  The 
Evolution  of  Religion  (1905);  Westermaarck,  The  Origin  and 
Development  of  the  Moral  Ideas  (1906),  2  vols.;  Hobhouse, 
Morals  in  Evolution  (1906),  2  vols.;  Marett,  The  Threshold  of 
Religion  (1909). 

Religion  in  the  Lower  Culture. — Ratzel,  The  History 
of  Mankind,  tr.  Butler  (1896),  3  vols.;  Turner,  Samoa  (1884); 
Codrington,  Melanesians  (1891);  A.  B.  Ellis,  Ewe-speaking 
Peoples  (1890);  Y or uba- speaking  Peoples  (1894);  T shi- speaking 
Peoples  (1897);  Crooke,  Popular  Religion  and  Folk-lore  of 
Northern  India  (2  vols.  1896);  Miss  M.  H.  Kingsley,  Travels 
in  West  Africa  (1898),  West  African  Studies  (1899);  Spencer 
and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia  (1899),  Northern 
Tribes  of  Central  Australia  (1904);  Howitt,  Native  Tribes  of 
South-eastern  Australia  (1904);  Dennett,  At  the  Back  of  the 
Black  Man's  Mind  (1906)  ;  Roscoe,  The  Baganda,  their 
Customs  and  Beliefs  (1911);  Brinton,  Myths  of  the  New  World  2 
( 1878) ;  McClintock,  The  Old  North  Trail  (1910) ;  Reports  of  the 
Bureau  of  Ethnology ,  Smithsonian  Institution,  Washington. 

251 


252 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


For  the  higher  religions  a  few  of  the  best  English  introduc¬ 
tions  are  here  named,  in  addition  to  the  copious  collection  of 
materials  in  the  Sacred  Books  of  the  East  (50  vols.). 

Babylonia  :  Sayce,  Hibbert  Lectures  (1887),  Religions  of 
Ancient  Egypt  and  Babylonia  (1902);  Jastrow,  Religion  of 
Babylonia  and  Assyria  (1898),  American  Lectures. 

Celts:  Rhys,  Hibbert  Lectures  (1886);  Macculloch,  The 
Religion  of  the  Ancient  Celts  (1911). 

China:  Legge,  Chinese  Classics 2  (1893),  5  vols.  (in  8  parts); 
de  Groot,  The  Religious  System  of  China  (1892-1910),  6  vols.: 
already  published,  The  Religion  of  the  Chinese  (1910). 

Christianity  (primitive)  :  Wernle,  Beginnings  of  Christian¬ 
ity  (1903),  2  vols.;  Pfleiderer,  Primitive  Christianity  (1906),  4 
vols.  Fuller  bibliography  in  Encycl.  Brit.,11  by  G.  W.  Knox. 

Egypt  :  Renouf,  Hibbert  Lectures  (1879) ;  Maspero,  The  Dawn 
of  Civilisation  (1894);  Sayce,  Religions  of  Ancient  Egypt  and 
Babylonia  (1902);  Erman,  Handbook  of  Egyptian  Religion 
(1907);  Budge,  Osiris  and  the  Egyptian  Resurrection  (1911), 
2  vols. 

Greece  :  Farnell,  Cults  of  the  Greek  States  (1896-1909),  5 
vols.,  Greece  and  Babylon  (1911),  Higher  Aspects  of  Greek  Reli¬ 
gion  (1912);  Miss  J.  E.  Harrison,  Prolegomena  to  the  Study  of 
Greek  Religion  (1903),  Themis  (1912);  Sir  W.  M.  Ramsay,  in 
Hastings’  Diet,  of  the  Bible,  extra  vol.  (1904),  “  Religion  of 
Greece  and  Asia  Minor.” 

India  :  Barth,  Religions  of  India  (1882);  Hopkins,  Religions 
of  India  (1895).  Vedic  :  Macdonell,  Vedic  Mythology  (1897) 
in  Biihler’s  Grundriss  ;  Bloomfield,  Religion  of  the  Veda  (1909). 
For  Buddhism,  see  Mrs.  Rhys  Davids’  vol.  in  this  series. 
Hinduism  :  Monies  Williams,  Religious  Thought  and  Life  in 
India  (1883). 

Israel  Kuenen,  Religion  of  Israel  (1874),  3  vols.;  Monte- 
fiore,  Hibbert  Lectures  (1892);  Kautzsch,  in  Hastings’  Diet,  of 
the  Bible,  extra  vol.  (1904),  “  Religion  of  Israel.”  Kent,  Hist, 
of  the  Hebrew  People ,  2  vols.  (1896-7);  Hist,  of  the  Jewish 
People  (1899);  Addis,  Hebrew  Religion  (1906);  Marti, 
Religion  of  the  Old  Testament  (1907). 

Jains  i  Jacobi  in  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  vols.  xxii  (1884) 
and  xlv  (1895) ;  Biihler,  On  the  Indian  Sect  of  the  Jainas  (1904). 

Japan:  The  Nihongi,  tr.  Aston  (1896),  2  vols.;  Aston, 
Shinto  (1905) ;  papers  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Asiatic  Society 
of  Japan  ;  Griffis,  The  Religions  of  Japan  4  (1904,  New  York); 
Knox,  Development  of  Religion  in  Japan  (1907);  Tada  Kanai, 
The  Praises  of  Amida ,  tr.  Lloyd  (1907,  Tokyo). 


INDEX 


253 


Mexico  and  Peru  :  Reville,  Hibbert  Lectures  (1884) ;  Payne, 
History  of  the  New  World  called  America  (1892),  2  vols. 

Mohammedanism  :  see  Prof.  Margoliouth’s  vol.  in  this  series. 

Persia  :  Jackson,  Zoroaster,  the  Prophet  of  ancient  Iran 
(1899) ;  San j  ana,  Zarathushtra  and  Zarathushtrianism  in  the 
Avesta  (1906,  Leipzig);  Moulton,  Early  Religious  Poetry  of 
Persia  (1911). 

Rome  :  W.  Warde  Fowler,  The  Roman  Festivals,  1899,  The 
Religious  Experience  of  the  Roman  People  (1911);  Glover, 
Studies  in  Virgil,  1904;  Dill,  Roman  Society  from  Nero  to 
Marcus  Aurelius  (1904);  Carter,  The  Religion  of  Numa  (1906), 
The  Religious  Life  of  Ancient  Rome  (1912);  Cumont,  Oriental 
Religions  in  Roman  Paganism  (1911),  Astrology  and  Religion 
among  the  Greeks  and  Romans  (1912). 

Sikhs  :  Macauliffe,  The  Sikh  Religion  (1909),  6  vols. 

Teutons  :  Vigfusson  and  Powell,  Corpus  Poeticum  Boreale 
(1883),  2  vols. ;  Grimm,  tr.  Stallybrass,  Teutonic  Mythology 
(1900),  4  vols. ;  Chantepie  de  la  Saussaye,  Religion  of  the 
Teutons  (1902). 

Small  popular  volumes  in  the  series  on  “  Non-Christian 
Religious  Systems  ”  (Soc.  for  Promoting  Christian  Knowledge), 
and  more  recently  in  Constable’s  series,  “  Religions  Ancient 
and  Modern.”  Valuable  articles  in  Hastings’  Encyclopaedia 
of  Religion  and  Ethics,  and  in  Encyclopaedia  Britannica. 


INDEX 


Adi-Grantit,  tlie,  188 
Aditi,  155 
Adonis,  119 
iEschylus,  130 
iEsculapius,  44,  127,  180,  221 
Africa,  111,  113  f.,  140,  148,  163, 
182,  203 
Agni,  34,  94 

Ahriman  (Anra  Mainyu),  155,  212, 
248 

Ahura  Mazda,  131,  211  f.,  248 
Aius  Locutius,  126 
Akhnaton,  129 
“All-gods,”  the,  129 
American  Indians,  North,  57,  81, 
110,  173,  235 

Amida  (Amitabha),  16  ff.,  132, 
246 


Animism,  55,  59 
Annam,  83 

Apollo,  123,  127,  145,  159,  173,  181, 

183 

Artemis,  127 
Asceticism,  168 
Asha,  216,  221 
Asista,  148 
Athena,  123,  127,  173 
Athens,  228 
Attis,  119 
Augury,  178 

Augustine,  St.,  35,  42,  52 
Augustus,  125 

Australia,  33,  75,  78  f.,  86,  110, 
114  f.,  149,  162,  171,  199,  202 
Avalokitefjvara,  131,  154 
Awona-wilona,  111 


254 


INDEX 


Bab,  the,  70, 188 

Babylonia,  39,  58,  102, 109, 145, 151, 
171,  178,' 205,  209,  237,  240 
Baiame,  149,  171 
Balder,  210,  249 
Baptism,  rites  of,  160 
Berosus,  39,  241 
Bhagavad-Gita,  the,  128 
Bhakti,  157 
Bible,  the,  194 

Birth,  deities  and  rites  of,  121,  159 
Blackfoot  Indians,  the,  35,  167 
Book  of  the  Dead,  the,  186 
Brahma,  60,  156 
Brahma,'  60,  62,  129,  158 
Brahmanas,  the,  189,  217 
Bralimanaspati,!  156 
Brahmanical  sacrifice,  143 
Brahmanism,  24,  128 
Buddha,  the  future,  159.  Cp.  Go- 
tama 

Buddhism,  15,  24,  61,  65,  131,  153, 
155,  219,  241,  244  f. 

Buddhist  Scriptures,  190 
Bjunjil,  171 

Celts,  the,  27,  41,  104,  142,  231 
Chemosh,  107 

China,  58,  63,  65,  68,  87,  90,  95, 125, 
150,  178,  214,  231 
Chinese  Classics,  187 
Christianity,  187,  225,  250 
Chrysippus,  184 
Cicero,  42,  46 
Qiva,  62,  128  f. 

Classification  of  religions,  220 
Clement  of  Alexandria,  50  f. 
Confucius,  27  f.,  63,  96 
Corea,  66 

Creation-myths,  110 
Cybele,  40 

Dahomey,  138 

Dance,  the  sacred,  166 

Daramulun,  162,  171 

Dead,  cultus  of  the,  20,  90,  1 37  ff, 

Death,  121 

Delphi.  182,  221,  242 

Demeter,  40,  119,  164 

Deng-deet.  148 

Dionysos,  40,  119,  127,  147 

Divination,  178 

Dreams,  86,  179,  229 

Druzes,  the,  188 

Ea,  113,  172 

Earth,  mother,  59,  95,  97, 173 


Eating  the  god,  146 
Edda,  the,  27,  186 
Egypt,  7,  39,  46,  102,  109,  113,  124, 
129,  151  f.,  171  f.,  209,  213,  227, 
237  f.,  246 

Eleusinian  Mysteries,  164,  239 
Entheos,'147 
Erinnyes,  the,  238 
Eskimo,  the,  228  f.,  233 
Etruscans,  the,  178,  229 
Euahlayi,  the,  149 
Euripides,  48,  151. 

Eusebius,  39,  52 

Fijians,  the,  197,  233 
Finnic  peoples, 'the,  104,  231 
First-borns  sacrificed,  142 
Florida,  236 
Food-deities,  115  ff. 

Gabriel,  131 
Gathas,  the,  191,  221 
Genius,  the,  123 

Gold  Coast  negroes,  107,  138,  144, 
197 

Gotama,  15,  127,  219 
Greece,  37,  90,  121  f.,  145,  161 

Hades,  238 
Hammurabi,  172 

Heaven  and  Earth,  63,  94  ff.,  213 ff. 

Hebrews,  the,  140.,  See  Israel. 

Heraeleides,  184 

Heracleitus,  48,  50 

Herbert,  Lord,  81 

Hermes,  9  f.,  181 

Herodotus,  26,  38,  238 

Hesiod,  182,  186,  213 

Hestia,  122 

Hierography,  Hierology,  Hieroso- 
phy,  29  f. 

Hinduism,  62 
Hirata,  92  f.,  135 
Homer,  181  f.,  186,  238,  242 
Homeric  Hymn,  164 
Huitzilopochtli,  147 

Incubation,  180 
India,  58,  90,  127,  139,  141 
Indra,  34,  155,  177 
Initiation  ceremonies,  161  ff. 

Irish  sacrificed  first-borns,  142 
Isis,  39  ff.,  51,  109,  127,  165 
Islam.  See  Mohammedanism. 
Israel,  201,  222,  230,  237,  249 

Jacob,  168 


INDEX 


255 


Jains,  the,  61,  188 

Japan,  63,  66,  91,  125,  135,  138  f. 

152,  246  • 

Jephthah,  107 
Jeremiah,  182 

Jews,  the,  39,  58.  See  Israel. 
Judaism,  187,  223,  249 
Judgment  after  death,  7  fif.,  233  ff. 
Jumala,  105 
Juno,  145 

Jupiter.  35,  109,  130,  145 
J ustin  the  Martyr,  49 

Kabir,  157,  188 
Kalevala,  the,  27,  57,  186 
Kami,  the,  64,  91  ff.,  135 
Karma,  60,  217,  219,  243  ff. 

Kings,  as  divine,  124 
Koran,  the,  13,  69,  155,  187,  192  f. 
Krishna,  128 
Kwan-yin,  132,  154 

Lao-Tsze,  64,  214  f. 

Lares,  the,  123 
Lesa,  140 
Lessing,  22 
Li  Chi,  the,  150 
Life  after  Death,  226  ff. 

Life,  in  the  universe,  83 
Logos,  the,  47  f.,  50,  53 
Loki,  210 
Lot,  the,  1T8 
Lucretius,  42,  44 
Lycurgus,  173 

Maat,  214 

Magic,  75  fif.,  120,  142,  148,  154 

Mahabharata,  the,  190 

Mama  Ogllo,  174 

Mana,  80,  85,  200 

Manco  Capac,  174 

Manetho,  39 

Manitou,  81 

Manu,  190 

Marcian  Songs,  184 

Marduk,  113,  140 

Mawu,  198 

Melanesia,  139,  164 

Messiah,  the,  250 

Metis,  176 

Mexir-o,  57,  117,  147,  161,  232,  234 

Michabo,  173 

Michael,  7,  9  f.,  131 

Migration,  229 

Minerva,  109,  145 

Minos,  44,  173 

Minucius  Felix,  49 


Mithra,  9,  52,  166,  236 
Mitra,  34,  155 

Mohammed,  12  f.,  67  f.,  187,  193 
-J  Mohammedanism,  24,  26,  58,  63, 
67,  155 

Morality,  135,  195  ff. 

Moses,  222 
“Mothers,”  104 
Motowori,  92 
Mulungu,  82 
Musseus,  181,  183 
Muses,  the,  181 
Mysteries,  51,  164  fif.,  239 
Mythology,  174  ff. 

Nanak,  62 
New  Zealand,  232 
Nezahuatl,  130 

Niger,  tribes  of  Lower,  150,  198, 
231 

Noah’s  sacrifice,  141 
Norns,  the,  161 
Numa,  44  f.,  173 
Nurrundere,  171 
Nyongmo,  113 

Cannes,  171 
Odin,  181,  210 
Omophagy,  147 
Onomacritus,  183 
Oracles,  182  fif. 

Ordeals,  179 
Orenda,  81 
Orpheus,  181 
Orphism,  147,  165,  239  f. 

Osiris,  8, 109,  119,  172,  209,  237,  247 

Pachacamac,  152 
Pan,  44,  153 
“  Parasites,”  145 
Parsees,  the,  58 
Pausanias,  41,  53 
Penates,  123,  145 
Persephone,  40,  119,  240 
Peru,  57,  108,  117,  174 
Petronius  Arbiter,  22 
Pindar,  44,  48,  153,  213,  239,  242 
Plato,  38,  45  f.,  48  f.,  133,  178,  182, 
239,  242 

Plutarch,  41,  44 
Polydaemonistic  religions,  55 
Polynesia,  112,  164 
Prajapati,  12,  143  f. 

Prayer,  35,  133,  148  fif. 

Prometheus,  137 
Pythagoras,  38 
Pythagoreans,  220,  239  f. 


256  .  INDEX 


Quetzalcoatl,  173 

Bain-making,  54 
Rameses,  108 
Rashnu,  9,  236 
Religio,  42 

Rig  Veda,  10  f.,  59.  See  Veda. 
Rita,  216 

Rites  of  passage,  159 
Roman  emperor,  124 
Rome,  41,  52,  90,  109,  123,  181,  145, 
161,  178,  201 

Sabazius,  165 
Sacred  Books,  185  ff. 

Sacrifice,  133,  136  ff. 

Samuel,  161 
Saoshyant,  248 
Sarapis,  39,  146 
Satan,  the,  223 
Scandinavia,  209,  229 
Scape-goat,  in  Israel,  206 
Schleiermacher,  23 
Scriptures,  189  ff. 

Self,  doctrine  of  the,  85  ff. 

Self,  the  Universal,  60,  245 
Semites,  the,  142 
Set,  209 

Shamash,  151,  172 
Shang  Ti,  97,  100 
Sheol,  230 
Shin,  the,  95,  100 
Shinto,  63,  91,  135,  187,  207 
Sibylline  books,  184 
Sikhs,  the,  62,  188 
Sin,  communicable  and  removable, 
204  ff. 

Sin  (moon-god),  151 
Snake-dance,  167 
Socrates,  50,  133,  153 
Sophocles,  44 

Soter  (saviour,  etc.),  124  f.,  127 
Spirits,  54,  102 

Stars,  the  dead  as,  231,  240,  243 

Stoics,  the,  178 

Sufiism,  70 

Sun-dance,  34,  167 

Syrians,  the,  142 

Taaroa,  112 
Taboo,  200  ff. 

Tammuz,  119 
Tao,  the,  215 


Taoism,  65,  67,  187 
Tertullian,  51,  124 
Tezcatlipoca,  147 
Thales,  37,  213 
Thargelia,  the,  206 
Themis,  118,  213 
Thor,  210 
Thoth,  8,  152 
Tibet,  66 
Time,  143 
Todas,  the,  33,  148 
Totemism,  55 
Transmigration,  61,  218 
Triads,  109 
Trimurti,  129 
Truth,  goddesses  of,  8 
Tutanus  Rediculus,  126 

Ukko,  105 

Universal  Religions,  70 

Valhalla,  235 
Varro,  42 

Varuna,  34,  106,  151,  155  f.,  211, 
243 

Veda,  the,  136,  142,  151,  155,  163, 
177,  189,  205,  215,  243 
Vegetation-gods,  118  ff. 

Vesta,  122  f. 

Vishnu,  62,  128  f.,  158,  190 
Volospa,  the,  186,  248 
Votan,  174 
Vows,  168 

Wainamoinen,  181,  232 
Wakanda,  81 
World -year,  240 

Xavier,  Francis,  86 

Yahweh,  107,  144,  161,  168,  222 
Yama,  121,  243  f. 

Yang  and  Yin,  95,  120  f. 

Zaleucus,  44,  173 

Zarathustra  (Zoroaster),  38,  44,  58, 
131,  163,  187,  201,  221,  246  f. 

Zend  Avesta,  the,  187,  191  f.,  211 
Zeus,  103,  106,  109,  127,  153,  173, 
176,  181,  213,  238,  243 
Zi  (Babylonian),  102 
Zunis,  the,  83,  111 


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